St. Louis County Library launches program to help formerly incarcerated start small businesses
By Shoshana Stahl
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ST. LOUIS (KMOV) — The St. Louis County Library is offering a new opportunity for people hoping to get their lives back on track.
It’s through a new program called the Small Business Launchpad which is helping former convicts start their own business.
Matthew Palmer said he’s looking to gain financial freedom through his new business Squeak Key Clean, which offers mobile car detailing.
“I just decided that’s something I needed to pursue to better myself as an entrepreneur,” Palmer said.
Palmer said he has 10 years of experience in the automotive industry.
The class helped him learn how create and properly run a small business. “Like Netflix offers the monthly services, I can pull up to anybody’s job, household and things like that, do an oil change in the driveway and take care of the car inside and out,” Palmer said.
Palmer is on probation after spending several months in the St. Louis City Justice Center for unlawful use of a weapon. “I got out and I just had the motivation to apply myself more in life,” Palmer said. “I need to be my own boss.”
The program started in August and will finish on January 24.
Library employee Megan Phifer-Davis has been running the program for the last six months.
Of the 54 applicants, Phifer-Davis says they accepted 11 into the program and grant funding allowed each participant to get a laptop.
The program meets every other week and Phifer-Davis said she was inspired by a similar program in Georgia.
Phifer-Davis said people who have been behind bars can struggle to find jobs after they’re released
“What companies are going to hire somebody with a felony background and it’s extremely sad and desolate what companies are openly hiring people and will not discriminate against that,” Phifer-Davis said.
Phifer-Davis said it not only helps those were formerly incarcerated, but the community too.
“The whole point of the justice system is to rehabilitate people to come back into society to make a positive change and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do,” Phifer-Davis said. “By making that small business they’re not only making wealth and supporting themselves, they’re giving it back into the economy to hopefully support the St. Louis ecosystem.”
Phifer-Davis said the library will run a second round of this program starting July 10. The next program will run weekly for eight weeks and there will be 12 open slots. Applications for the second Small Business Launchpad will open in May.
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