About Reentry Wheels
We help people coming home get to work, family, and everything next.
A reliable car is often the one thing standing between coming home and moving forward. Reentry Wheels provides that car, and the support to keep it on the road, so people returning from incarceration can get to work, stay close to family, contribute to their community, and reach the next level of freedom.
Reentry Wheels founder Jason Holland (center right) and Chief Resource Officer James Bell (center) at their graduation from the Los Angeles County Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD) Incubation Academy, the county program that helps stand up grassroots nonprofits led by justice-involved founders.
What drives us
Mission, vision, and values.
Our Vision
A future where no one returning home is held back by a lack of transportation.
Freedom through autonomy
The independence to get where you need to go, on your own terms.
Authentic accountability
Real responsibility, met with real support through a partnership, not a handout.
Dignity and trust
We meet people as capable adults ready to move their own lives forward.
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Our Story
One act of generosity, a whole life forward.
When Jason Holland came home, someone gave him a car. It came from an organization he had a relationship with, and it changed everything that came next. That one car meant he could hold down a full-time job, show up for the people he loved, and meet every condition of his release. The things that make a life stable again all depended on being able to get to them, and for the first time, he could.
Working in reentry in the years after, Jason watched the opposite play out again and again. People came home ready to work, found a job, and then lost it because they had no reliable way to get there. The barrier was rarely willingness. It was a ride. He kept asking why no one was solving something so basic and so fixable, until he decided to solve it himself. Reentry Wheels exists so that the second chance Jason was given becomes a second chance other people can count on.
A ride is the difference between stuck and moving.
For someone coming home, the hardest barriers are rarely the ones people expect. A job offer means nothing if there is no way to get to the worksite by 6 a.m. A parole check-in cannot be rescheduled around a bus that does not run. Recovery meetings, a child's school pickup, a shift that starts across town: every one of them depends on reliable transportation, and without it, the whole reentry can quietly fall apart.
This one is personal
"Someone believed I was worth a second chance, and it changed my whole life. Building Reentry Wheels is how I pass that on, because I know firsthand the difference one reliable car can make."
Jason Holland
Co-founder
Who's Behind it
The people doing the work.
Jason Holland
Executive Director
Jason's reentry background includes work with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and Defy Ventures. Having lived the difference that reliable, personal transportation makes for stability and independence, he brought partners together to found Reentry Wheels.
After his own reintegration, a donated car helped him keep meaningful work and stay close to the people he loves during a pivotal time. He is committed to giving others that same practical second chance.
James Bell
Chief Resource Officer
James is an advocate with a wide-ranging background. After earning a Business Ready Certification from Baylor University, he brought resilience and commitment through his own challenges, including a period of incarceration.
As Chief Resource Officer, he leads resource procurement and outreach and supports people transitioning back into society. He also works in logistics and operations, and outside of work is committed to fitness and lifelong learning.
What a reliable car really gives back to someone.
A reliable car does more than get someone to work. It means being there for a daughter's daycare pickup, sitting in the stands at a game, showing up on time for the appointments that keep recovery on track. It means not asking anyone for a ride, not rearranging a life around a bus schedule, not choosing between a shift and a family obligation. That is what the next level of freedom looks like: the independence to move through your own life on your own terms, with a team behind you the whole way.
From lived experience
"The biggest obstacle isn't willpower, it's transportation. Without it, keeping a job, getting to school, and staying connected to family all become nearly impossible. Reentry Wheels exists because I know what it means to start over."
James Bell
Co-founder
In Partnership
We don’t do this alone.
Financial Liberation Training Academy
Financial Liberation Training Academy (FLTA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing financial literacy, credit building, employment training, and business education to people who are incarcerated, youth in foster care, and people experiencing homelessness.
Where we're headed
Goals for the next two years
Reentry Wheels is early in its story. The next two years are about showing what reliable transportation can do when more people have it. These are the goals we are working toward, and every gift moves one of them forward.
20
participants placed in reliable vehicles.
50
monthly donors sustaining the program.
5
referral partnerships with parole, probation, and reentry organizations.
3
partnered dealerships, fleet providers, or donors for discounted or donated cars.
80%
of participants reaching and keeping steady employment within six months.
$250K
raised across grants, donors and gifts.
Be the first gift
Be the reason car #1 hits the road.
No one has received a car through Reentry Wheels yet. That first one is waiting on a donor like you. Your gift covers a license, a defensive driving course, and the keys, everything it takes to turn a second chance into a way to get to work.
Cars on the road
Car #1 awaits
0
20
Our two-year goal. Every dollar moves the first car closer to a driveway.
$7,500
puts one person in a reliable vehicle of their own.