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About the Justice Impact Challenge
About the Justice Impact Challenge
The Justice Impact Challenge is an Allegheny county-wide platform for justice-impacted leadership, innovation, and community change that was created to elevate the creativity, resilience, and lived experience of people that have been impacted by the criminal justice system.
We believe that justice system-impacted people are not a risk, they are a resource for economic mobility, stronger neighborhoods, and community leadership.
This initiative brings together:
Seed funding
Public visibility
Mentorship and coaching
Community support
Real pathways to entrepreneurship
Why It Matters
Justice system-impacted people face some of the highest barriers to employment and opportunity yet possess some of the most powerful insights into what communities need.
This Challenge turns lived experience into leadership.
We Believe in Change™
BreakIT is a trauma-informed, inclusive incubator built specifically for justice system-impacted founders.
What We Aim to Solve
BreakIT addresses the deep economic exclusion faced by people who are justice system impacted and LGBTQ+. These communities experience some of the highest barriers to employment, income stability, and business ownership due to discrimination, trauma, limited access to capital, and a lack of culturally competent support systems. Many traditional entrepreneurial programs are not designed for people navigating reentry, stigma, poverty, housing instability, or the long term impacts of trauma.
We aim to solve the systemic gap where talent and potential exist, yet opportunity does not. The people we serve are ready to build businesses and futures, but structural barriers block their path. BreakIT provides a trauma informed, inclusive incubator that combines business development, healing, mentorship, and community to help individuals transform resilience into entrepreneurship. We work to create an economy where people who have been pushed aside can finally access the tools, networks, and support needed to thrive.
Our approach includes
Healing-centered coaching
Practical business guidance
Emotional and strategic support
Non-hierarchical, community-driven learning
Radical inclusivity and belonging
What Participants Get
Monthly workshops
Bi-weekly coaching
Access to mentors
Business planning
Business model & pitch development
Marketing & branding support
Financial basics
Community resources
Opportunities for funding and partnerships
A showcase the following year
Learn more at our website, www.BreakIT.life
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