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Douglas Pond
Director of Volunteer Partnerships
Douglas Pond is a professional with a diverse background in international development and entrepreneurship. He currently serves as the Director of Volunteer Partnerships at the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP).26 In this role, Pond is actively involved in initiatives aimed at reducing recidivism and empowering successful reentry for formerly incarcerated individuals through mentorship and education.6
Career History
Prior to his current position, Douglas Pond held several notable roles:
- Chief Commercial Officer: He worked for Opportunity International in Mozambique, arriving in the country in 2008.1
- International Business Development: Pond has been associated with Opportunity International, focusing on innovative strategies to leverage impact through multi-sector alliances.4
Involvement with PEP
At the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, Pond's work revolves around:
- Facilitating connections between PEP graduates and supportive resources
- Organizing transformational events and initiatives
- Promoting second chances for formerly incarcerated individuals5
Douglas Pond actively shares updates and insights about PEP's work on his LinkedIn profile. He has posted about meeting PEP graduates and highlighting their remarkable journeys, demonstrating his commitment to the program's mission.2
Social Media Presence
Pond maintains an active presence on professional networking platforms:
- LinkedIn: His username is douglaspond, where he regularly posts about PEP activities and success stories.235
- Twitter: He can be found under the handle @DouglasPond.4
Through his work and social media engagement, Douglas Pond showcases his dedication to creating opportunities for personal growth and societal reintegration for those who have been involved with the criminal justice system.
Highlights
Epiphany … a beautiful story to hear of Mr. Hosman’s journey that helped him to realize the human condition transcends all people regardless of race, creed, social status and even those convicted of crimes against society. Mr. Holman noted, "As I was surrounding myself with more and more of these people and trying to help them on a one-on-one basis, I realized that the challenges everybody faced were almost the same set of challenges," Hosman says. "So I [had] this idea that almost anybody could get back on top if they just had this recipe of help. And if they would accept that help, and it was given really well, anybody could be successful." A recipe of help … PEP refers to this as their experiential theory of change, where they strive to curate interventions that create life inflection points, helping to restore the program participant’s sense of dignity. Interestingly, the first and hardest step in starting the journey is to forgive oneself for their anti-social behavior. Clearing this hurdle provides the fertile soil for vulnerability, trust and hope for a new life. These are the stories I live for - thanks for sharing yours, Mr. Hosman.
The Prison Entrepreneurship Program turns 19 today! We thank all of our volunteers for their contributions to serving our program participants. It takes a village and we invite you to join our #secondchance community on this journey to support men seeking to change their lives to serve others and reach their full potential in life. Without all of you we could not achieve these results.
STRONG EMPLOYMENT 100% of PEP graduates are employed within 90 days of release from prison; in fact, our graduates average only 20 days “from prison to paycheck.” We have achieved our employment metric every month since May 2010.
SMALL BUSINESS FORMATION/INCUBATOR More than 500 businesses have been launched by PEP graduates, including five that generate over $1MM in gross annual revenue.
EXCELLENT JOB RETENTION Nearly 100% of PEP graduates are still employed after 12 months (compared to a nearly 50% national unemployment rate among ex-offenders).
HIGHER THAN AVERAGE STARTING WAGE PEP graduates have a $12.63/hour average starting wage (68% above minimum wage). After their first year of release, the average wage rise to $17.97/hour, and their average wage after 3 years of release is $23.62/hour.
EXCEPTIONALLY LOW RECIDIVISM PEP graduates have an exceptionally low 8.3% three-year recidivism rate (compared to the national average of nearly 50%). Our goal is to achieve a recidivism rate of zero.
Please consider joining us on this journey, so no man, no family, no community is left behind. Your time, talents and treasure make a difference by standing in the gap for these men and enabling them to have a #secondchance.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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