DURHAM, N.C. — AJ’s Cheesecakes has become a staple dessert shop in the Durham community, but its cheesecakes are only part of what makes it so popular. AJ’s is part of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance.
Being part of the N.C. Second Chance Alliance means the business hires formerly incarcerated people to give them a fresh start. More than 49% of people released from prison in the state are arrested again, according to a report by the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission.
Ali Edwards got her start in cooking at just 11 years old. Her mom got sick, and she took on the responsibility to feed her brother and sisters. Edwards said she wasn’t very good at first, but with some instruction from her mom she overcame her childhood challenges.
“That's what started my love for cooking,” Edwards said. “Because I felt like in that moment, I did something that changed and made a difference in somebody's life.”
Now, many years later, Edwards is the owner of AJ’s Cheesecakes and still trying to make a difference.
“I feel like every stage of my life has been mimicked in my employees,” Edwards said. “I'm the product of a broken home and a single mother. I'm also a misfit in my own way. I'm a weirdo. I've been called weird all my life, and I've embraced that. And I love it.”
Edwards became part of North Carolina’s Second Chance Alliance, hiring employees who used to be in prison and are trying to get a fresh start, in 2021 when she opened her dessert shop.
“Second Chance just gave me a opportunity to use this platform to raise awareness to all of those things that are out there that's meant to break people,” Edwards said. “And here you thrive with those things. You know, and that's the culture that I want to create for my employees, for myself and for our customers.”
It’s a culture that Salah Abdallah is grateful for. He’s been working as a handyman at AJ’s ever since he got out of prison seven years ago.
“When you come home, it's just a different world…” Abdallah said. “And it will never be the same world as you left.”
Abdallah said he’s thankful he had a good support system, but even as a licensed trainer, he couldn’t get a job at a gym.
“If you don't give them a chance,” Abdallah said. “You get what I'm saying? You set them up for the same thing you don't want them to do. You don't want them to steal drugs … but you don't give them opportunity to work.”
Abdallah said because of the help he received, he’s become a community organizer and reentry specialist for Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
“It just shows that they're not defining you by your words, decision or what statistics think of you,” Abdallah said. “They meet you as a person.”
That’s why Edwards hires people like Abdallah. Because they become her family, and she’s proud to see what they accomplish.
“Because if I had a door shut in my face every time, I wouldn't open the door,” Edwards said. “Then once somebody actually opened the door for me and welcomed me in, I would be loyal to them too. And that's kind of what you get when you employ Second Chance.”
Laura Webb with the North Carolina Justice Center said one in four people who return from incarceration are unemployed. The Second Chance Alliance helps partner businesses with reentry service providers. In turn they’re able to place people in jobs that work for them.
“In North Carolina, we're seeing a workforce shortage,” Webb said. “We're seeing a lot of businesses who are hiring, but then we're seeing a lot of people with records who struggle to find meaningful employment. And so the goal of the Justice Center and the Second Chance Alliance is to answer both of those problems. Close that workforce shortage and get people with records meaningful employment.”
AJ’s Cheesecakes is open Wednesday through Sunday, and it usually has a line out the door. To learn more about Second Chance or to join the alliance, visit its website.