EP25: Partner Spotlight: JUMPSTART

During the past year, I've had the privilege of serving as an

inside volunteer for Jumpstart. Every week.

I continue to be tremendously inspired and awestruck by the

radical transformation that occurs when the incarcerated

truly surrender their lives to Christ.

Jumpstart provides a very rigorous Christ based curriculum

inside the prison and when participants successfully

complete the course upon their release, they are provided the

necessary outside resources that enable them to reenter society

and fulfill their newly found Christ Center purpose.

I'm truly blessed to be part of the Jumpstart organization and

personally witness the life changing results of their

ministry. Welcome back to another episode

of the Grace Church Members Podcast.

You just heard Craig Nowikunski, A Jumpstart volunteer and Grace

Church's Travelers Rest Campus member, talking about the impact

he has experienced serving with Jumpstart.

Jumpstart is a strategic partner with Grace Church and on this

episode my goal is to introduce you to this partnership and how

God is using this ministry to advance His Kingdom.

At the table we have Kerry Sanders, who is the Chief

Executive Officer at Jumpstart. Kerry, welcome.

Chris, super excited to be here. Yeah man, I've always enjoyed

our time together and grateful. Why don't you maybe just jump in

and tell us a little bit about your story and the history of

Jumpstart? Sure, Chris, It's a little

surreal to be here to church sharing on a podcast because my

life didn't look like it was headed towards being at a church

sharing on the podcast. I'm kind of jump in.

At my darkest moment in May of 2005, I was.

Facing a life sentence and the only thing I was thinking about

was suicide. I didn't believe in God, I

didn't believe in heaven or hell, and I couldn't quite grasp

how my life had come to that moment.

I had grown up in a good family. My family had cared.

My mom had tried as hard as any mother ever had, and I had a

good childhood. I remember playing sports with

my brothers outdoors and throwing the football and the

baseball around the yard. And remember, one year we got BB

guns for Christmas and. You know, playing Cowboys and

Indians and shooting one another.

You know it hurt and but it was a lot of fun.

But as I entered my adolescent years, I started seeking

attention for the outlandish things that I would do.

One story I remember, our 7th grade formal dance party was

held at a pretty girl's house and the pool at her home had

been declared strictly off limits and but a friend of mine

dared me and under the influence of stolen booze, marijuana and.

Some other things. I went off that diving board and

those cold waters in the middle of April, and only my Whitey

tidies and my friends cheered loudly, and that made getting

thrown out of that party worthwhile.

You know, those square chaperones didn't know what a

good time was. And as I would get attention for

things like that, I had to do increasingly crazier things to

get the same kind of attention. And that led me to being

arrested 17 times by the age of 17.

And I spent three different sentences in the Department of

Juvenile Justice. But I learned next to nothing,

even though I experienced a lot. Soon after my 17th birthday, I

shot someone during an armed robbery that went bad, and I was

apprehended a year later in Canada as an international

fugitive from justice and brought back to Greenville by

the Department of Homeland Security.

So they're in that jail cell. I had a I had some God size

problems. I.

Bet you did. And but I thought he was a fairy

tale. And the very night I was

planning to commit suicide, I met Jesus Christ.

And 2 1/2 years later I was in prison.

I had matured some in Christ and was actually working for the

chaplain. And he said, Hey, Kerry, this

program's starting and I think you should check it out.

And I didn't really want to go because I'd heard about prison

programs and had participated in some that were nothing but a

joke. But because I respected that

chaplain and he had been discipling me, I said I'm going

to give this program a shot. And that day Don Williams, the

cofounder of Jumpstart, came in and said, hey, I was the most

wanted man in Spartanburg County.

But I have found a pathway out of the cycle of crime.

And he said, I'm here today to share with you all that plan.

It's called jumpstart. And the acronym Jumpstart stands

for just using the Masters plan to stay true after release time.

Chris. The the hope that was ignited in

that room that day was palpable. Because you see, the narrative

at that time could be kind of captured in a friend of mine who

I was incarcerated with. His name was John.

John had been in and out of prison four different times.

Each time he got out. He didn't have a driver's

license, and he couldn't get one without a birth certificate or

Social Security card. And so he couldn't get a job.

He didn't have anywhere to live, and in a couple of days he would

be hungry and desperate, and he would do something stupid to go

back to prison. That doesn't excuse his actions,

but what I'm trying to convey there is that that spark of

hope, that learning to follow Jesus combined with tangible

resources after release. Really sparked the

transformation that is Jumpstart because the national narrative

on what's possible for those that are involved in the

criminal justice system, it began to change that day.

And so for the next six years, while I was incarcerated, I got

to participate in Jumpstart and be discipled by people from

local churches like Grace coming in and saying, hey, with Christ,

your future can be greater than your past.

And through people like Craig, who you heard at the beginning,

people like that poured into my life to help me see and know

what it meant to follow Jesus. And that's so good.

And then you ended up coming on staff.

What did that look like? How did that happen?

Yeah, I've been out of prison about two years and was working

hard and Jumpstart called me and said, hey Carrie, do you you

want to get involved with our team?

And I was like, absolutely not. Like I've been incarcerated half

my life. I don't have, I don't want care

to have anything to do with the prison.

So I was reluctant like maybe like some people listening to

this today about getting involved with prison ministry.

And I was coming at it from a reluctance from a different

standpoint. I knew what it was all about and

knew the challenges faced. But as I began to pray about it,

I knew that it's what the Lord wanted me to do.

So I joined the staff team in 2015 and.

Was a part of developing the partnership with Grace Church

and Jumpstart in 2017 and was actually on the Grace Church

staff part time for about three years.

OK. Yeah, maybe unpack that and then

the partnership, how all that came about?

Jumpstart believes that with Christ, anyone's future can be

greater than their past. We believe that because the

Cross of Christ is sufficient to justify anyone, regardless of

what they've done. And we believe the Spirit of God

is powerful enough to transform anyone, regardless of their

behaviors. That result in things like

criminal activity. So we believe Jesus is

sufficient to transform. And we also know that those

coming out of incarceration face insurmountable obstacles that

they must have helped to overcome if they're going to

have a pathway towards flourishing in the community.

So we combine discipleship with tangible reentry services.

It's kind of the core of what we do.

Yeah. So there's an inside program,

and then there's an outside program.

Can you unpack that? Yeah.

The inside program, we have a year long program in 19 of South

Carolina's 23 prisons. So we have a statewide presence

here in South Carolina. It's a year long program and our

methodology really combines the best of theological scholarship

with social science research. So participants are working

through curriculum every week that we've developed and then

volunteers come in from local churches and participate in

small groups. So think of a community group.

Like most Grace members attend, but it's actually occurring

inside of a prison. And the neat thing about our

community group is nobody's there is really pretending that

they've got it all together. And it takes 2 years to kind of

unpack some things And that setting, it's like, hey, I'm

desperate for Jesus and I'm desperate for help.

And so there's a lot of transparency and vulnerability.

And then one of things that most people are interested to hear is

that kind of our competitive advantage in the prison ministry

space, one of our distinctives. Is that we're using a assessment

tool that peers are completing on one another to help identify

who is pursuing Jesus and who's showing up the class talking a

good game. And so it really helps us

identify who is living out, what they're learning and who's just

talking about it. So of 1000, people every year

participate in our program across the state, men and women.

Only about 400 complete it successfully and we believe

that's a good thing. Rigorous intentionally, if they

complete that inside program successfully, they're eligible

for our transitional program upon the release.

That transitional program is designed and has all the pieces

in place for them to go from prisoner to homeowner in a

period of two years. And that's critical because with

that criminal record, no one wants to rent to them.

So we have to start from scratch.

Getting their proper documentation, workforce

readiness, training, partnership with an employer, transportation

to all of that and then helping them learn financial literacy,

learning how to save home buying.

You know, all of those things. Wow.

So it's clear that you have created an army of volunteers

that help make this happen. Can you unpack some of the?

Serving opportunities like what Greg shared.

I mean, he's clearly passionate about this, but talk to us about

how people have got involved at Grace.

What does that look like? Ongoing.

Yeah, I'm gonna name drop a little bit as I tell.

The story. If you want just so people

listening to this will know some of these people that they can go

ask them as well. I think of a Paul Gato who goes

from the downtown campus and he goes into Tiger River every

Tuesday and helps facilitate classes on the inside.

I think of a John Beard, Doctor John Beard at the Pelham campus.

He's doing that every week in three prisons.

Now that's not, it's not possible for most people because

they're working, but he's retired and he's found meaning

there. I think about Craig Nowikunski

from the Travelers Rest Campus. There are members from the

Spartanburg campus involved in that in prison ministry.

Another cool opportunity is Taylor.

Brown from the Spartanburg campus leads him and Jay Bliven

lead a 33 series in the morning with our transitional program.

So that's a version of men's round table authentic manhood.

So they're going in and helping facilitate that.

Taylor is also leading a group that goes over and exercises the

F3 group couple mornings a week. You know they're doing

calisthenics out in the rain and the cold or the heat and just

good fellowship and exercising. We have volunteer like Mary

Flair from Spartanburg who at our restoration village, she's

for free helping curate materials for the homes, you

know, furnishings. She's helping do the interior

design on those homes. So it's not just a place to

stay, but it's designed as a home to to really help the

people feel safe and secure and loved and dignity.

So there are numerous serving opportunities with Jumpstart,

and probably the best way to find out which is good for a

member of the church if they're excited about this ministry, is

to just sign up for a tour. Someone can visit our website

and sign up for a tour, and they'll get to meet some of the

team and see the space where we're working and have all of

their questions answered. And we can.

Identify an opportunity that's a good fit for their skill set and

their schedule. Yeah.

Well, it's clear the mission is transforming lives in prison.

Talk to me a little bit about your strategy for helping the

incarcerated. They come out of prison like,

what does a life look like within Jumpstarts Ministry?

Yeah, I love to tell the story of Kimberly.

Kimberly ended up incarcerated because she was in a domestic

abuse situation that she didn't know how to handle and she

wrongly took matters into her own hands and and killed her

spouse. She was incarcerated for 25

years and so by the time she was released, her parents had

deceased and she had lost all of her personal belongings over

those 25 years. So without jumpstart she would

have been homeless. The day of her release she gets

to us and we have to help get her her identification, so we

got to get her a birth certificate again, a Social

Security card again so she can get an ID.

She has no clothing, so that's needing to be provided.

She has no transportation. Nothing.

And so we're able to to come alongside her and help her

journey. And now today she's a lead on a

shift at a company and she's a homeowner.

And so really there's a lot of puzzle pieces there.

But I think most importantly, she's a sister in Christ who's

living for the glory of Jesus. And she has seen her brothers

and sisters in Christ come alongside her and provide her

with opportunities that she didn't have access to on her

own. That's good.

You've clearly made an impact since becoming the Chief

Executive Officer there. Share a little bit about this

project that you guys have been working on.

Yeah. So a number of years ago, we

realized that we could serve people better if we consolidated

into a central location. And so that central location is

Restoration Village that we're building.

Couple of Grace members were instrumental in that Chris

Urban, Tommy Moore, Mike Carrocketes and James de Mint.

They were very key in helping kind of master plan a

neighborhood that's designed specifically for people coming

out of incarceration. So think of a subdivision.

We're building a subdivision for people coming out of

incarceration and we currently have five homes on site there

that people are living in. And in that community we're

building an Opportunity Center. Yeah, the opportunity center,

Chris is going to allow us to provide.

Incredible onsite case management support for those

going through our program. We're going to have all kinds of

classroom space to do everything from conflict resolution classes

to financial literacy and other kind of classes designed for for

those that we serve. It's going to have a culinary

arts training center in it to provide workforce development

opportunities and and revenue for our mission.

And then it's also going to have Chapel space for events and

Chapel services and things of that nature.

One of the the reasons Grace is behind this right now is

Jumpsort has been identified by Truest Bank as the top nonprofit

in South Carolina for impact delivered And so we are eligible

for a $900,000 grant if 300,000 of which would be paid out this

year and we can use that funding for our Opportunity Center.

If we have 65% of the opportunity funding in place,

gotcha and so Grace's gift, they're matching challenge gift

is going to help get us over that threshold, yeah.

So this is good, Carrie. I think just piggybacking off of

what you said earlier about Restoration Village and the

money that you're trying to raise this 8,000,000.

So the Opportunity Center is going to be smack dab right

there. So are the people that have

these homes. They'll be able to walk to work

if they're doing culinary or they're doing a class.

What are some of the classes that you guys will be providing?

One of the favorite classes will be providing as a workforce

development opportunity where the residents will wear these

virtual reality training goggles and they can learn over 50

different trades without the need to go on site.

This makes them better prepared to be good employees for

employers in the area, and it provides them more of a living

wage for them to save for their future.

So for those of us that there, I mean, you've named so many

people that are already volunteering.

What does it look like financially?

I mean you we need to raise money for this.

How much money are you trying to raise?

Are there types of givers that could jump in?

What are you looking for? Yeah.

To finish the entire project of Restoration Village and meet our

operation needs over the next two years, we need to raise a

little over $8 million. Each home and restoration

village cost $250,000. That's a steal when you think

about, you know, it's $110 a square foot to be able to

provide that kind of opportunity to someone to go from prisoner

to homeowner and have a clear pathway to get them there.

And so that's kind of big picture what we're doing.

Yeah, that's good. What do you feel like this is

going to allow Jumpstart to be able to do?

When this is finished and you have all this, you have the

funds raised. Yeah, I think one of the the

things that we're most excited about is that a lot of times in

ministry organizations think about, well, what how, what can

we do to just get by? You know, how can we just just

provide a meaningful opportunity.

But we're trying to provide a world class opportunity so that

men and women can be reunited with their families, they can be

pillars in the community and that they're living for the

glory of. King Jesus.

Not that they've just got out of prison and haven't relapsed into

addiction and committed another crime, but they're actually

pillars in the community because of this opportunity that's been

afforded to them by God's people.

And they're able to be living proof of what God can do, and

that his ability to rescue and restore is unprecedented and

unparalleled. Well, this is a incredible

opportunity for us as a church. I think we should be on the hook

for this. This is our, these are our

brothers and sisters. And so I'm excited that you have

given us this opportunity. I'm glad that we're partnering

with you and it seems like you have a great process and I think

our church can help scale that with money and resources and

people. And so it's exciting me.

Is there anything else you want to leave us with as we close?

You know, I'm a Grace Church member and my wife have been

covenant members of Grace Church for five years.

And we lead a community group. And and I would just say for

people, whether they're involved with jumpstart or front porch

housing or one of the other missions partners, if they are

not experiencing deep abiding joy in Jesus Christ, I would

encourage them to get involved in an opportunity like this.

Because as they go make disciples, they're going to get

discipled and they're going to find joy, satisfaction, and

fulfillment in this in a way that they can't find at Haywood

Mall or down on Woodruff Road by buying something else.

So that would encourage them to just take that first step and

see what God will do in their life as they put themselves on

the hook to serve other people. Thank you so much.

As we wrap up today's conversation, we want to thank

you for joining us and we also want to challenge you to give to

this, be it your time or your financial resources, we feel

like this partnership is is something that we want you to be

involved in. So if you have questions or you

want access to additional resources to help you move

towards Jumpstart, be sure to check out our podcast page

located in the show notes. Thanks for joining us today and

we look forward to joining you on the next episode.