About US
Empowerment
Community
Practical Impact
Inclusion
Second chances
How we Help
Grant information
Access to resources for finding grant opportunities
ENtrepreneurship
Coaching
Equip business owners with tools to start, grow and fund their businesses.
Leadership Training
Develop skills to lead effectively in business contexts
Networking
Build sustainable connections with like minded individuals and partners
Our Purpose
The National Association of Formerly Incarcerated Business Owners (NAFIBO) was founded to address a critical gap in professional support: the lack of a dedicated space for justice-involved entrepreneurs. While many membership organizations exist for professionals to network based on industry, gender, or culture, none center the shared challenges of reentry and the entrepreneurial paths that often emerge from those experiences. For many formerly incarcerated individuals, traditional employment offers limited stability, low wages, and few opportunities for advancement. Entrepreneurship becomes a powerful alternative, offering financial independence, security, and self-determination. NAFIBO exists to support that path. Its purpose is to provide a private and empowering network where members can connect, collaborate, and access resources, coaching, and tools to grow sustainable businesses.
By fostering innovation and elevating the voices of formerly incarcerated professionals, NAFIBO transforms records into assets and barriers into pathways to economic mobility and leadership.
meet our fearless founder
Waleisah Wilson-Menefee, a nonprofit founder and multipreneur, is a nationally recognized advocate, speaker, and activist for criminal justice reform. An alumni of several national leadership training programs for formerly incarcerated people (to include JustLeadershipUSA, Soros Justice Fellowship and Represent Justice) and a lifetime member of the International Society of Female Professionals, Waleisah has dedicated over a decade to dismantling systemic barriers for justice-impacted individuals, including viable pathways to entrepreneurship and access to capital for business owners impacted by a felony conviction.
Her work spans reentry support, anti-prison labor campaigns, advocacy on the intersectionality of disability & incarceration, voter rights education, centering the voices and leadership of justice involved people and building wealth through financial literacy, empowerment and entrepreneurship. With lived experience and relentless purpose, she leads, advocates and runs her businesses ethically, transparently and with authenticity, passion, and a vision for change.
ACTIVIST
Lead organizer of Georgia’s All of Us or None chapter, fighting to abolish prison labor and end felony disenfranchisement.
2022- Waleisah receiving a proclamation from Georgia Representative Nikema Williams's office for her activism and leadership on the exploitation of labor of incarcerated Georgians, in which she produced a short documentary highlighting Georgia's financial dependency on prison slavery and how it harms incarcerated Georgians and their communities.
MULTIPRENEUR
2016- Waleisah (and Meeko Menefee receiving a proclamation from Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on behalf of NewLife-Second Chance Outreach Inc., to honor July as Reentry Awareness Month to bring awareness to the barriers to reentry for justice involved Georgians but also to highlight the contributions of justice involved Georgians to their communities and to the state's economy.
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2023- Because of her entrepreneurial success and unique business model that prioritizes the start up and growth of businesses and nonprofits owners and led by justice involved people, Waleisah's consulting business was awarded a $7,500 loan to expand her business consulting services to include conference planning and facilitating trainings and to start a new membership based association exclusive to justice involved entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders like herself.
This is about more than reentry. It’s about dignity, restoration, and rewriting what’s possible for those OF US who’ve been silenced FOR FAR Too LONG.
— Waleisah Wilson
Nonprofit Founder & Leader
Founded NewLife-Second Chance Outreach, Inc., a Georgia nonprofit that supports formerly incarcerated individuals with reentry services, digital literacy, advocacy, employment and entrepreneurship.
2016- Waleisah (and Meeko Menefee receiving a proclamation from Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on behalf of NewLife-Second Chance Outreach Inc., to honor July as Reentry Awareness Month to bring awareness to the barriers to reentry for justice involved Georgians but also to highlight the contributions of justice involved Georgians to their communities and to the state's economy.
"By investing in second chances, we have the chance to create a world where we all have the opportunities we need not just to survive but to thrive and be healthy, whole & productive members of our communities."
— Waleisah Wilson