Empowering Justice-Impacted Entrepreneurs through Digital Device Repair
Opening Juneteenth 2025 – 6/19
City Startup Labs (CSL) is excited to announce a new digital device repair social venture, ReConnex (Reentry Connections). Slated to open this May, in one of Charlotte’s Corridors of Opportunity, ReConnex, will be part of a network of CTIA.org, Wireless Industry Service Excellence (WISE) certified retail locations. Consumers and businesses in the North Tryon corridor will now have a qualified provider that meets the highest standards for service quality and wireless device repair.
Staffed by a WISE certified team, ReConnex will soon be meeting the tech support needs for communities lacking this essential service.
A New Model for Economic Mobility
ReConnex is born out of City Startup Labs’ ReEntry Entrepreneurship Program (REEP), a groundbreaking initiative, focused on equipping justice-impacted people with the fundamentals for starting new businesses and effectively competing in the 21st century.
This social venture was formed as a worker cooperative, which makes the ReConnex teammates co-owner operators of the business along with City Startup Labs. Through this innovative model, ReConnex aims to address the challenges of socio-economic mobility in Charlotte for justice-impacted individuals, while also meeting a specific community pain-point – affordable, reliable and dependable device repair and tech support.
Elsworth Usher and Mustaffa Jenkins, ReConnex teammates
“ReConnex is more than a new business concept—it’s a bridge to opportunity. By equipping justice-impacted individuals with valuable tech skills and ownership stakes, we’re establishing a cooperative economics model that empowers and rewards individuals by serving the needs of the community.”
– Henry Rock, Founder/Executive Director of City Startup Labs
Partnerships for Growth and Training
ReConnex, in partnership with iFixAmerica (iFA), an Omaha-based CTIA member device repair business, is supported by a Digital Champions grant from the N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Office of Digital Opportunity. This award allows for CSL to fulfill on a mission that has been several years in the making – from inception to launch. A mission to create a new class of justice-impacted entrepreneurs who can tackle the digital divide through an innovative social-enterprise, which also serves as a unique tool for community-based restorative justice for under-served communities in Charlotte..
On-site training at iFixOmaha
with Jessica Townes, Mustaffa Jenkins, and Brandon Moore, gaining hands-on experience in digital device repair!
Jessica Townes, Mustaffa Jenkins, and Brandon Moore participated in training with Jason DeWater
(Founder/CEO of iFixAmerica – iFixOmaha).