Walker Beverly creates nonprofit to serve formerly incarcerated and breaking barriers

Walker Beverly (2018) was profiled in a news story by CSUSB strategic communication team for his constant work towards providing formerly incarcerated people second opportunity after prison and helping them integrate back into society. The article highlights how Walker was able to transform his MA project into a thriving social justice-based, life-long project to help others transform their lives the way he did.

Beverly’s research resulted in his thesis project, "I Just Got Out. I Need a Place to Live: A Business Plan for Transitional Housing." This project reveals the challenges faced by individuals reentering society after incarceration and has been downloaded more than 6,400 times. “The appendix is actually a business plan to start a transitional housing as a nonprofit,” Beverly said. “I've gotten calls from New York, Illinois, Georgia. I have a friend in Connecticut who read it and called, ‘Hey man, come out here. Help me try to open something up out here.’” In Desert Hot Springs, Beverly applied his business plan to create Advancing Steps, which gained nonprofit status in November 2019. But the COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant hurdle, delaying the organization's progress. During that time, Beverly focused on building a network of partnerships with other organizations and government agencies, he said. The nonprofit is still working toward creating transitional housing. "We have a grant of over $750,000 to do reentry work," Beverly explained. "Our budget is around $300,000 a year right now. But we hope to raise that and be a million-dollar organization in the next couple of years."