City Startup Labs is set to launch a new tech-focused initiative that will bring device repair to communities in need, the organization announced on July 3. The new initiative is part of its ReEntry Entrepreneurship Program.
With a $400,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, the Charlotte organization will partner with Omaha-based organization iFixAmerica to address Charlotte’s digital divide through its new initiative called ReConnex (ReentryConnections).
The Reconnex program is a device repair retail operation managed and operated by what City Startup Labs describes as “justice-impacted persons.”
“This initiative is something that’s been brewing for a while now, and the idea is to train folks, a small team actually, to receive industry-recognized certifications in digital device repair and also train them in entrepreneurial activities and for them to also learn how to essentially manager and operate a retail business,” Henry Rock, founder of City Startup Labs, told QCity Metro.
The initiative is twofold: justice-impacted participants will gain industry-recognized technology certifications, including the Wireless Industry Service Excellence certification, and real-time experience operating a business, while the retail concept brings a necessary resource to communities that need it.
Rock said that once program participants are credentialed and trained, they will begin offering their skills at a brick-and-mortar location that City Startup Labs will open.
The retail operation will offer tech support and repairs for phones, laptops, printers and more in communities that Rock said have historically lacked similar resources.
He said the pilot brick-and-mortar location is expected to launch in early 2025 in one of Charlotte’s six Corridors of Opportunity with hopes of later servicing all the corridors.
“In areas like the Corridors [of Opportunity,] people haven’t really had dependable, reliable, affordable device repair that is local and that doesn’t require residents go outside of their communities to get this type of service,” he told QCity Metro.
“Aside from the fact that we are intending to service the residents and businesses within the corridors … we’re imagining this as a workers co-cop. That means that the folks that are managing and operating this business will also be owners along with us.”
Rock noted that the initiative will offer vital outcomes to the community, from the benefits to the participants of the program to the residents in the service areas.
“This is gonna be a new step forward for us with this social venture, and I’m pretty excited about that.”
