Terrance Akins got his first lesson on how to start a business Thursday night.

He wants to start his own clothing line– a dream he’s been chasing since turning his life around and going back to school.

“I can hire myself when nobody else will hire me,” Akins said.

When he was 17, he went to prison for robbery. He served 17 years, but when he got out in 2014, he couldn’t find a job.

“It was just rejection after rejection,” he said. “I got rejected by more than 20 different employers back to back. That was very discouraging.”

Akins is one of about half a dozen people in the Restorative Entrepreneurship Program. For four weeks, people who’ve been to prison or have family in prison learn the basics of starting a business.

“When people come out of jail if they’re a felon, they have a very difficult time getting a job,” said Mia McNeal who facilitates the program. “They have a very difficult time getting housing.”

“If you’re an entrepreneur, all of that goes away or a lot of that goes away.”

Each class is dedicated to a different topic like knowing your customers, branding, cost structure, and raising capital.

“I want to put people in a position to go ahead and start your business today,” McNeal said. “Let’s get it moving.”

The classes take place at the McGruder Family Resource Center in North Nashville. Director Alisha Haddock says the area has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country.

“At least, one of three people that frequent McGruder has been affected by incarceration some kind of way,” says Haddock. “So what we figured is, we are missing a population that we need to serve.”

It’s a second chance, Akins says, that everyone deserves.

“We have dreams too,” he said. “We want to be somebody one day too.”