Charlotte housing nonprofit rebrands to widen mission

Re-entry organization rebrands and expands services

A Charlotte re-entry organization has a new name and expanded mission.
Freedom Fighting Missionaries is now New Chapter Alliance. Its goals remain the same: help people with housing as well as re-entry for the formerly incarcerated. The nonprofit is adding programs for low-income seniors and McKinney-Vento housing-insecure youth. 

“I would often get calls from people that would say they were struggling to meet rent costs, but they didn’t fit the criteria of [formerly incarcerated],” said Kenneth Robinson, president and founder of New Chapter Alliance.
The rebranding process came about when Robinson headed to New York for a presentation to new funders. The owner of a billion-dollar company who Robinson said asked to remain anonymous if he’d consider a rebrand that he would pay for it.

“This company has $70 billion in assets, 7,000 employees, and offices in 70 countries, so they’re huge,” Robinson said. “They have their own branding and marketing department. However, they assigned their director to work alongside me on this project, and I requested that we choose a local Charlotte company. I issued a [request for proposal]. Several different local branding companies responded, and ultimately, we selected one, BRK Marketing, who has over 20 years of experience in the local Charlotte area, founded by a guy named Jack Burke. … They helped lead the rebranding efforts.”
Robinson added the rebrand process was worth $35,000 including logos, company website and brand guidelines. There are plans in place to do an official unveiling event. A documentary on the company is in production and will be released later. 

“We will have an event around the documentary,” Robinson said. “We will do the documentary screening and show it probably at the Independent Picture House and make more of a grander announcement, but now the work is done at the marketing company. Secretary of state work is done, so we are moving forward ahead of that big announcement.”

Robinson founded Freedom Fighting Missionaries in 2020 to support justice-impacted individuals. The rebranding reflects the organization's evolving impact, expands reach and the depth of mission centered on “people and possibility.”

“This represents an opportunity for us to serve more people within our community,” he said. 

Everything New Chapter Alliance builds moving forward is designed to create pathways to stability, opportunity and belonging. 

“We have created a pathway for people that makes it possible to obtain permanent housing within their income levels,” Robinson said. “Based on the vouchers received, we receive the rental subsidies and additional community support. The service worker can afford to live here according to their income, which means that a family at $20 or $21 an hour would have a reduced rate because they’re a service worker, not because they’re a drug addict or they're formerly incarcerated, but because we need people to work in the grocery stores and at the gas stations.”

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