Interview with Tommy Safian
In 2015, long-time colleagues and friends, Tommy Safian and Cisco Pinedo, serial entrepreneurs in home furnishings, launched the non-profit Refoundry, which teaches formerly incarcerated people to repurpose discarded materials into home furnishings, and mentors participants into their own businesses or career-track jobs.
“We feel craft, commerce, and entrepreneurship is the most expedient pathway for formerly incarcerated people to find success…business has a real power for change, it moves much more quickly than government and nonprofits, and it can integrate and become a part of people’s lives and communities in ways that other things can’t,” Tommy told CariClub.
Refoundry’s program is long-term — from 3–12 months — and pays participants a living wage during their full-time training. The program, which has locations in both NY and LA, also includes a ten-point life skills curriculum. To date, not a single participant has gone to prison since being a part of Refoundry.
Refoundry’s use of recycled and discarded materials carries symbolic significance for its participants. Tommy explained that Refoundry “participants often describe themselves as feeling like garbage. When they take materials people have thrown out, and use their own hands, creativity, and industry to transform those things into products of value, it has special significance. Once they go out into the world to sell those things, people approach them as artisans.”
Tommy also told us about one participant from New York named Gene, who had spent 30 years in prison. Gene embraced the craft of carpentry, selling his tables at Brooklyn Flea. One of Gene’s customers asked him to build a custom table, and over time, the two became friendly. The customer invited Gene and his wife over for dinner to christen the table upon its completion. As Tommy says, “[the customer] didn’t do that so they could talk about it at a cocktail party. It happened because of the relationship that developed in that process. I don’t know of another program where someone who has committed a serious felony…gets invited by an upper-middle class person into their home to break bread.”
Now, amidst COVID-19, Refoundry has made strategic pivots to ensure their participants are still developing skills to keep them competitive in the workforce. Before the lockdown was in place, Refoundry made the switch to remote programming, offering all of their members safety training per CDC and WHO guidelines. Leadership then secured funding to start a new project called “Makers Make Masks” which currently engages twenty home-bound, formerly incarcerated people. Refoundry provided them all sewing machines, materials, technical support, and online training with volunteer sewers. Now, these individuals are making masks for donation to staff and people incarcerated in Rikers Island in NY, the second largest jail in the country, and to people who are homeless in Los Angeles. Many Refoundry participants have experienced homelessness.
The impact that happens at Refoundry goes beyond its core participants as well. Since its founding, members have achieved independent success and have launched ten businesses which employ a total of 125 individuals.
“We are always adapting to the situation, to the realities of our participants. It is not a one-size-fits-all program. Our curriculum is dynamic, always changing to fit the needs of the people we serve, the business model, and the marketplace as well.”
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Refoundry is a nonprofit partner of CariClub. We are so proud to work with them and are continually inspired by all that they do. If you’re interested in getting involved in CariClub, please check out our website or reach out to hello@cariclub.com. To stay up to date about what CariClub is up to, follow CariClub on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
