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Al Holsopple was on a bus to Annapolis in 2018 to participate in a Maryland General Assembly program when he met and chatted up another passenger, a retired Maryland state prison chaplain. That encounter, and many months of planning, fundraising and recruiting, has led to the creation of Lifting Labels, a non-profit jobs project for formerly incarcerated men and women here in Baltimore.
“He told me about his work and said that, while he was a prison chaplain, he promised himself that he was going to start a sewing company to hire returning citizens. I got excited, listening to him talk about it,” said Holsopple, who lives with his wife, MaDonna, a childhood development educator, on Jordan Street.
Holsopple and his new friend, Chester A. France, Jr., signed up with a local non-profit organization set up to help new business creators. Over an intense three days they learned about fundraising, governance, marketing and other skills that are critical for new small business entrepreneurs.
Holsopple drew on his experience as a retired nursing home administrator, while France had spent 25 years as an ordained minister working for the prison system. The prison system had three sewing plants, France knew, but he also recognized that people were coming home to Baltimore with sewing skills, but without jobs. During the pandemic Holsopple enrolled in a six-month online skill-building workshop for innovators, with local business mentors.
They decided their first market could be judges who wear robes on the bench. As an active minister, France also saw churches and other religious institutions as potential buyers for choir robes and similar products, so that is where they began. Holsopple, also an ordained but inactive Mennonite pastor, started fundraising, recruiting a board, and reaching out to local charities and individuals who could help get them started.
“We began in 2021 with five returning citizens. It was rough during the pandemic. Six judges agreed to be our first customers, and it turned out they knew our workers, some of them,” Holsopple said. Now they are beginning to collect orders for choir robes and are looking also to produce capes and aprons for barbers and beauticians, graduation gowns and garment bags. “We can produce on demand whatever sewing products our customers need,” he said.
Like all small non-profit start-ups, they need more money and more volunteers – especially people with backgrounds in sales and marketing. They recently added to their board a man who, while in prison, mastered computer software development skills and, on his return, has created a highly successful company.
“We need to ramp up our marketing and, of course, we need donors, large and small.” Even as a small enterprise their monthly operating costs are nearly $15,000 monthly. They operate out of a warehouse in Pigtown. They want others to join their mission to reduce poverty, create sustainable employment, and improve the quality of life of underemployed and low-income families.
Interested? Learn more at Liftinglabels.org, or contact Al Holsopple at 443-416-2912.
– Bill Hamilton
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