Use the section below to describe the commercial service or cultural asset provided by your project/business.
The Joint is an American casual dining restaurant that serves locally-made food options while prioritizing the returning residents of our community by providing dignified employment to people with non-violent criminal backgrounds in order to reduce recidivism. The Joint will solely employ returning residents and will be managed by people who have successfully returned from prison themselves in order to provide our returning residents with meaningful employment and mentorship that is created for them and by their peer group. By meeting our returning residents where they are at, The Joint will build upon the skills that they learned while in prison by providing them with food, safety, and sanitation license training. While our employees continue to grow and gain skills, they will also practice the value of being a servant leader in our community. The Joint has a commitment to partnering with community organizations to provide individuals and families affected by mass incarceration with the resources and opportunities they need to keep themselves or their loved one in our community as valued community members.
2.3 – Use the section below to describe how your project/business will fill a commercial or cultural gap in the surrounding community, and have a competitive advantage.
The Joint was formerly Petie Boys restaurant, which was located in a trademarked building on the corner of 69th and Western. For the past 40 years, Petie Boys provided an easily accessible and local food alternative to the corporate chain restaurants that have increasingly occupied the corridor. Before its closing (last year), after its previous owner decided to retire, Petie Boys was a thriving and lively spot on the corridor for community members to gather, eat native Chicago food, and share in neighborhood culture and community.[unique_solution]
When The Joint opens up for business, it will provide our community with a place for all of our community members to access locally-made food options, and will also catalyze the corridor by being the first business to provide essential services for our returning residents and their families, which welcomes them into the economy and makes our neighborhoods more connected and safe.
2.4 – Use the section below to describe how your project/business will help transform the commercial corridor in which it is located. *
Opening The Joint will revitalize a trademarked building that exists on an easily accessible corner on a primary corridor that was successful in its business for 40 years. The Joint will transform our corridor by being the first business to work with our returning residents before they leave prison to ensure that qualified individuals have a job waiting for them once they return home. This not only transforms our community by creating jobs for our residents who live along our corridor, but also ensures that our returning residents do not get pushed into alternative economies in our community, which reduces the effects of mass incarceration in our community and makes us safer.
We will be the first business on our corridor to tackle recidivism head on by creating jobs that provide a local food alternative to our residents that we know has been successful in the past and that we know is missed by the community. By doing this, we ensure that our returning residents come home to meaningful employment that centers their experience and shows our community how valuable all of our neighbors are. We are breaking down the barriers between the formerly incarcerated and our community members who have never experienced incarceration by inviting our community to the table for a meal, and so much more.
6.3 How are you approaching the design or “visual appeal” of your business and why? Tell us more about your brand and how you plan to use this grant to support it. Word count should be no more than 200. A 100 words for both parts of the question.
100 words- Visual appeal/design
- The importance and Quality of safety
- Fence around the back to protect customers on the property because alleys unsafe.
- Highly visible presence by being on the corner of a bus stop which could create high traffic business,
- Security systems (all angles in the store and on the parking lot.).
- The current restaurant is 800 sq. ft. with looking to add another 600 sq. ft. (that creates a more visible presence by being larger on the strip.
100 words- Branding
- Talk about how the brand has historical lineage and how it is a staple in the community (use 2.3 for reference )
- Convey the importance of bringing economic opportunities while addressing the crime and violence that is prevalent in the community (2.2 or 2.4 for reference)
- The joint will produce positive working citizens to the community (2.4 for support)
- Provides a safe space for gatherings
- A place that provides food