The Come Up Project

Janelle Williams and Tené Traylor, the co-founders of Kindred Futures. At the time, Henderson – who is founder and CEO of The Come Up Project – was just three years into building out the multi-faceted organization based in Atlanta that provides a 'come-up' by developing the current and potential skill set of participants, while offering a pipeline into a viable career.

Henderson created The Come Up Project in 2016 and immediately launched its first program Gangsters to Growers – providing employment opportunities to formerly incarcerated people in marginalized communities. At-promise youth and formerly incarcerated individuals receive paid entrepreneurial internships, are mentored by local farmers, learn to plant, harvest, and vend produce to local restaurants and at a street side farmer's market, and gain an understanding of how to re-apply and transfer their current skill sets into the legitimate economy. By providing a living wage stipend to participants, the program is also designed to empower individuals with past criminal records, who are largely barred from jobs that would pay a livable wage, to amass seed money for their business venture.

Following the conversation with Kindred, a friend assisted her in formulating a proposal which led to seed funding from Kindred Futures.

Fast forward to 2025, and Kindred Futures and The Come Up Project are now strategic partners on Shared Ownership. The Come-Up Project will use a recent Kindred Futures grant to hire a Business Service Manager for their worker-owner cooperative. The manager will focus on driving product growth while upholding the cooperative's values of shared ownership and democratic decision-making.