SECOND CHANCE KINGS
HOME AGAIN
IN COLUMBIA.
For men coming home to Columbia — and for the families waiting on them. A starting point, not a brochure.
The order that actually works
Supervision first, always. Whatever else is happening that week, the check-in happens. One missed appointment can undo every other thing on this page.
Then documents, because they take the longest. Almost every door wants identification, and obtaining identification generally requires other identification. Start that loop early and work at it steadily.
Then a phone number that does not change. An employer calls once. If the number is dead next week, the call is gone.
Then transportation you have already tested. Ride the route, time it, and find out what fails before a shift depends on it.
Then income, and after that better income. The first job is a bridge, not a verdict on what you are worth.
Housing comes last, deliberately. In the first stretch a room beats a lease, because a lease you cannot carry is a worse problem than the one it solved.
The local logistics
Columbia is the easiest landing in the region for practical reasons: the bus runs, probation and parole offices, the workforce center and most social services sit within a few blocks of each other downtown, and hiring in food service, hospitality, warehousing, janitorial and healthcare support is continuous. Federal and state jobs are largely closed, so aim at the private service economy first and build from there.
Three interstates meet here, and the region's fixed-route bus system centers on downtown. Columbia is the one Midlands market where holding a job without owning a car is realistic rather than theoretical.
Start with SC Works and 211. For record questions, the Solicitor's office serving Richland County, South Carolina Legal Services or SC Appleseed. County records are at Richland County Judicial Center, 1701 Main St, Columbia, SC 29201. If you are in crisis, call 988, or 911 if anyone is in immediate danger.
Everything on this site is an extension of Ben Lovro's main site.
Talking about a record
Briefly, early, and facing forward. One or two sentences: what happened, that it is behind you, what you have done since. Then move to the work. Do not perform remorse and do not over-explain.
| Program | What it gives the employer | South Carolina contact |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Bonding Program | A free $5,000 fidelity bond covering employee dishonesty, for hiring someone considered high-risk to place. No cost to the employer | FederalBonding@dew.sc.gov |
| Work Opportunity Tax Credit | A federal tax credit of up to $2,400 for hiring someone formerly incarcerated | WOTC@dew.sc.gov |
Confirm the current terms of both with DEW rather than with a web page.
They exist to take risk out of the decision, and that is all they do. Neither one gets a person hired. What does is the ordinary commercial case: somebody who has been through this and intends to stay out of it is often the most motivated applicant in the stack.
The talent pool is genuinely deep because the university keeps refilling it. The difficulty is holding people, since state agencies and the hospital system compete on benefits and pensions rather than wages.
The local picture
Neighborhood associations carry real weight, churches organize a large share of civic life, and the university's calendar sets the rhythm of the whole city whether residents follow the team or not.
A lot of small firms in Columbia sell to institutions rather than to consumers: contractors, staffing firms, IT shops, lobbying and consulting practices. Underneath that sits a dense independent restaurant and personal-services base, much of it Black-owned.
Growth is redevelopment rather than expansion. Old industrial and institutional land inside the city is being converted to housing and offices, which pulls activity back toward the center. None of this is a judgment about anybody. It is terrain, and terrain is easier to cross when somebody has described it first.
More for Columbia
The rest of the Columbia material
The full market read for this area is on the Columbia, SC site. The deeper treatment of reentry support is on the topic site.
Frequently asked
Questions people actually ask
Do you work in Columbia?
Yes. Columbia and the rest of Richland County are inside the regular footprint, along with much of South Carolina.
Is this a government program?
No. Second Chance Kings is part of Ben Lovro's Kingdom Alliance service work. It is not affiliated with the South Carolina Department of Corrections — which runs its own separately-named Second Chance Program — or with any other state agency.
Do I have to be religious to get help?
No. Ben's faith is his own and it is why he does this. Nobody has to share it, agree with it, or attend anything to be treated decently.
What is hardest about coming home to Columbia?
Columbia is the easiest landing in the region for practical reasons: the bus runs, probation and parole offices, the workforce center and most social services sit within a few blocks of each other downtown, and hiring in food service, hospitality, warehousing, janitorial and healthcare support is continuous. Federal and state jobs are largely closed, so aim at the private service economy first and build from there.
Make your next move
A year from now, what will you be glad you started today?
You don't need another promise that everything will be easy. You need something useful to learn — and a next step you're willing to take.