{"id":198,"date":"2025-06-01T19:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T19:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pep2025dev.wpenginepowered.com\/?page_id=198"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:58:25","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About PEP"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tTurning Moments Into<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tMomentum<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Founded in 2004, PEP provides a holistic<\/i><\/p>

solution of forming men while in prison to<\/i><\/p>

develop the business skills and character<\/i><\/p>

traits necessary for entrepreneurship. Upon<\/i><\/p>

release, PEP supports them with<\/i><\/p>

wraparound services (community,<\/i><\/p>

employment, transportation, transition<\/i><\/p>

housing, and business services<\/i>).<\/i><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)\nunites executives and inmates through\nentrepreneurial passion and servant\nleadership to transform lives, restore\nfamilies, and rebuild communities.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Our Journey of Transformation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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PEP started at the Carol Vance Unit in 2004.<\/strong><\/p>

Initially, PEP\u2019s founder Catherine Rohr attended an Easter service with a group from Prison Fellowship. Later that day, she attended a dinner where she met a successful business owner who spent time in prison. This gave Catherine a different perspective of inmates and she realized the potential that was behind prison walls.<\/p>

The first class started out of sheer spontaneity. While visiting Texas, Catherine maximized her time by inviting some of her executive friends to join her in prison.<\/p>

Arriving on the unit unexpectedly; an announcement over the loudspeaker to join a group of executives to learn about business, yielded 60 willing inmates.<\/p>

To Catherine\u2019s surprise, the first class was born. <\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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After successfully completing the first class, Catherine quit her job in New York and moved back to California.<\/p>

PEP was then incorporated as Legacy Planning Institute in June 2004.<\/p>

Scroll through our history below<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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December 2004<\/div><\/div>
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August 2005<\/div><\/div>
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November 2005<\/div><\/div>
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January 2006<\/div><\/div>
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August 2006<\/div><\/div>
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October 2007<\/div><\/div>
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December 2007<\/div><\/div>
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January 2008<\/div><\/div>
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September 2009<\/div><\/div>
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October 2010<\/div><\/div>
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January 2011<\/div><\/div>
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March 2011<\/div><\/div>
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February 2013<\/div><\/div>
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August 2014<\/div><\/div>
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September 2014<\/div><\/div>
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March 2015<\/div><\/div>
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July 2017<\/div><\/div>
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November 2019<\/div><\/div>
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May 2020<\/div><\/div>
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June 2020<\/div><\/div>
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July 2021<\/div><\/div>
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September 2021<\/div><\/div>
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September 2021<\/div><\/div>
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September 2022<\/div><\/div>
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January 2023<\/div><\/div>
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May 2023<\/div><\/div>
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October 2023<\/div><\/div>
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November 2023<\/div><\/div>
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The name was changed to Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP).<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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PEP became headquartered in Houston, Texas.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The first eSchool class was held at St. Thomas University, where it would be held until relocating to Rice University. From Rice, eSchool transitioned to University of Houston\u2014Downtown. With growth, eSchool is now being held at its own location\u2014PEP University in both Houston and Dallas.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Class II started on the Hamilton Unit, where we would remain through Class VII.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Recruited three long-term Peer Educators to facilitate curriculum. This has extended to the Servant Leader infrastructure we utilize today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Introduced first Character Assessment during Class VII.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Started recruiting system wide, in anticipation of moving to Cleveland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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PEP moved to Cleveland with dedicated classroom and computer lab space.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Repentance of founder and leadership change\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First pre-BPC class added to the curriculum\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Replaced textbook with college-level textbook.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Men\u2019s Life: Quest for Authentic Manhood added to curriculum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Introduction of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Personality Introspective Tool\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Leadership Academy was born from pre-BPC class.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First Leadership Academy class at new second unit\u2014Sanders Estes\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First full BPC graduation at Sanders Estes\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First Leadership Academy at TDCJ-ID unit\u2014Gib Lewis\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First Barbed Wire to Business (B2B) pitch competition held at George W. Bush Presidential Center. PEP announces vision to start a commercial lender and open a space dedicated to returned citizen entrepreneurship.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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PEP launches Leadership Academy Correspondence Course in response to COVID pandemic and the resulting TDCJ lockdown.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Entre Capital \u2013 PEP\u2019s inhouse commercial lender \u2013 makes its first loan to a PEP graduate business.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Introduce eSchool Aspiration as an entrepreneurship-focus leading to the Big Aspirational Mingle (BAM!) event.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First BPC with team format and first BPC after COVID.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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First BAM! event held for participant entrepreneurs to pitch their vision to volunteers in a post-release setting.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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PEP Collider opens as a dedicated returned citizen space to foster more \u201ccollisions\u201d between volunteers and participants.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Revamp eSchool to be eSchool Networking to increase volunteer-participant interactions.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Launch Learning Management System (LMS) as the sole testing resource.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Introduced PEP Clubhouse as an interactive conversation\/open dialogue format.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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PEP Collider hosts large scale BAM! event with 100+ in attendance.\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> \r\n

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After 20 years of development, PEP has learned that entrepreneurship is a vehicle for transformation; and that the fundamentals of an entrepreneurial character become the foundation for a healthy, judgment-free community \u2013 a second chance community in which a person can belong, regardless of whether a person was incarcerated.\u00a0 This approach to community is what has kept mentors and business leaders engaged as volunteers year after year; many times, remaining in relationship well past the period of active engagement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\"Lighthouse<\/figure><\/div>
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\"PEP<\/figure><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turning Moments Into Momentum Founded in 2004, PEP provides a holistic solution of forming men while in prison to develop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-198","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pep.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}