FLAGSHIP INITIATIVE
SECOND CHANCE KINGS:
THE WORK UP CLOSE.
Second Chance Kings is the program under Kingdom Alliance that does the actual walking-alongside. This page is the overview. The full site for the men it serves and their families is separate, and it is written to them rather than about them.
What it is
Second Chance Kings works with young men reentering society after incarceration in South Carolina. The shape of it is a mentor, a sequence, and a set of doors.
The mentor is an adult who commits to twelve months of consistent contact. The sequence is the order of operations for the first ninety days — report to supervision, get identity documents, get a phone, solve transport, get income, get stable where you sleep — because the single most common way a good intention fails is doing those six things in the wrong order. The doors are employers, trades and congregations that have agreed in advance to take a look.
That is the entire model. There is no curriculum to graduate from and no certificate at the end. The measure is whether a man still has somebody in his phone at month twelve who will pick up.
Who it is for
Young men coming home, and the families waiting for them.
In practice the first contact very often is not the man himself. It is his mother, or his sister, or his wife, searching at eleven at night for something that will help when he gets out in six weeks. That is who a large share of the written material is really for, and it is written without a word of jargon because she has already had enough of that from every counter she has stood at.
There is no eligibility screen based on offense category, and no requirement to be at any particular stage of sorted out. There are two honest conditions. The man has to want it himself — someone else wanting it for him is the most common reason a match fails. And whatever his supervision conditions are, they come first, every time, including when they are inconvenient.
This page is part of a larger body of work — start with Ben's published resources.
Not affiliated with SCDC or any state agency
This needs saying directly because the names collide. The South Carolina Department of Corrections operates its own, separately-named Second Chance Program. SCDC and the Department of Employment and Workforce also run joint reentry and workforce initiatives.
Second Chance Kings is not that program. It is not affiliated with SCDC, with the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, with the Department of Employment and Workforce, or with any other state or federal agency. It receives no authority from any of them, reports to none of them, and speaks for none of them.
The state programs are worth using. SC Works career centers deliver job search help, interview preparation and skills training, including services delivered to people who are still incarcerated. If a mentor points a man at one of those, that is a referral to a public service, not a partnership being claimed. Verify current program details with the agency directly, because they change.
What is asked of a participant
The obligations are few and they are not negotiable, because the whole model is built on reliability running in both directions.
- Answer the phone. Not every time. Most times, and call back when you cannot.
- Keep your supervision conditions. Curfew, reporting, travel limits, testing. If a Kingdom Alliance commitment conflicts with a condition, the condition wins and the commitment moves.
- Say the true thing early. If a job went badly, if the car died, if you relapsed, if you have not eaten — early is a problem to solve. Late is a crisis.
- Do not use the relationship as a bank. A mentor is not a lender, and the first time money moves is usually the last time the friendship is honest.
- Show up where you said. The point is repetition. Twelve ordinary kept appointments rebuild something no speech does.
What it is not, and what it never promises
No job is guaranteed. No housing is guaranteed. No outcome is guaranteed, and any program that tells a man otherwise is selling him something at the worst possible moment to be sold to.
Second Chance Kings does not hold beds, does not run treatment, does not give legal advice, and has no role in anyone's case. It does not publish participants' names, photographs, ages, offenses or outcomes, and it does not use anyone's story as promotional material. Men under supervision have real exposure, and a program that trades their privacy for its own credibility has already failed the first test.
What is actually offered is narrower and worth more than a promise: you will not be doing the first year alone. That is the thing the packet at the gate cannot hand anybody.
Frequently asked
Questions people actually ask
Is Second Chance Kings the same as the SCDC Second Chance Program?
No. The South Carolina Department of Corrections runs its own separately-named Second Chance Program. Second Chance Kings is independent and is not affiliated with SCDC or with any state or federal agency.
How does someone start?
Reach out — by the man himself, or by a family member on his behalf, before release if possible. The first conversation is about what is already in place and what is missing, not an application.
Is there a cost?
No. There is no fee and no dues, and nobody is asked for money at any point.
Does someone have to be a Christian to take part?
No. Ben's faith is the reason the work exists and he says so plainly. It is not a condition of being helped, nothing is required of anyone's belief, and no one will be asked to attend a service.
What if someone violates or gets arrested again?
The mentor relationship is not a compliance mechanism and nobody here reports to an agency. What happens is a conversation about what is next, which usually starts with getting an actual lawyer involved rather than guessing.
Where is the site written for participants?
Second Chance Kings has its own site, written directly to men coming home and to their families, covering the first ninety days, identity documents, work, housing, money and record relief.
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.