People return home from incarceration every day to technology, systems, services, and everyday routines that may have changed dramatically while they were away. Home Run is being built to help close that gap.
Home Run was created by Makeda Davis — a software engineer, digital literacy educator, published author, recording artist, justice-impacted advocate, and board member of Hour Children.
Makeda spent nearly a decade incarcerated and later built a career in technology. Her work in reentry, digital literacy, fair-chance advocacy, and technology exposed a recurring gap: people can return home to systems and everyday tools that changed while they were away, with little personalized guidance for catching up.
"The world keeps moving while you're away. HOME RUN is about giving people a place to learn what changed without judgment, without information overload, and without having to pretend they already know."
HOME RUN brings Makeda's lived experience together with her technology and digital-literacy work. The beta is intentionally being shaped with input from returning citizens and reentry professionals before the platform is expanded.
Someone who went in before smartphones, before tap-to-pay, before streaming, before the gig economy — comes home to a world that assumes everyone already knows how all of it works. Reentry programs focus on housing, employment, and mental health. Almost none of them teach the everyday digital and cultural literacy that determines whether someone can navigate the world on day one.
HOME RUN asks three questions: when did you go in, when did you come home, and where are you coming home to? Then it filters the current curated beta knowledge base to build a personalized starting point based on the years they were away, one topic at a time, without overwhelming them.
The beta filters its curated content by the years someone was away, so a person gone 5 years can receive a different starting point from someone gone 25.
No walls of text. The tool surfaces 5 essentials first, then lets people explore at their own pace. Each topic reveals steps and videos only when asked.
Home Run doesn't feel like a government form. It uses warmth and humor — "Blockbuster had 9,000 locations. One survives, in Oregon, as a museum" — to make hard information land gently.
A counselor mode gives facility staff facilitator notes, classroom exercises, and pre-release action items for every topic — a curriculum built in.
Every guide links to curated YouTube tutorials — how to set up Apple Pay, use OMNY, apply for SNAP, set up a Firestick. Watch and learn, not just read.
The current HOME RUN beta is free to use and does not require an account. Optional feedback and Ask HOME RUN beta inputs may be collected to improve the product. Future sustainability may include grants, partnerships, or institutional licensing while prioritizing access for returning citizens.
HOME RUN is in beta. We're actively seeking pilot partners — reentry organizations, correctional facilities, workforce programs, and funders who want to be part of building the next version.
Test HOME RUN with your participants and help shape the next version through structured feedback, user research, and pilot collaboration.
Explore HOME RUN as a potential pre-release learning tool and help us test how facilitator guidance can fit into existing digital-literacy and reentry programming.
Fund the next phase: verified content infrastructure, Ask HOME RUN AI, lived-experience research, original tutorials, NYC pilot implementation, and evaluation.
Share the tool with your network. Every returning citizen who finds Home Run before someone finds them is a win. The link is free and always will be.
The beta proves the experience. The next phase strengthens the information underneath it and builds with the people who will actually use it.
A curated knowledge base beginning in 1990, date-based personalization, progressive learning, beta feedback collection, and an early Ask HOME RUN research experience.
Build a structured, source-backed database with effective dates, geography, importance, official sources, last-verified dates, and a process for reviewing changing legal, benefits, health, transit, and program information.
Turn the beta question collector into a conversational guide for everyday questions. High-stakes answers will be grounded in verified HOME RUN information and authoritative sources rather than relying on unsourced model memory.
Compensate returning citizens to test the platform, identify missing topics, contribute coming-home insights, and help shape short tutorials and step-by-step “do it with me” learning experiences.
Surface verified upcoming changes relevant to where someone is returning, deepen NYC coverage first, then expand geography and language support based on pilot evidence and partnerships.
HOME RUN is seeking its first round of grant funding and impact investment to move from a working beta to a full platform. Here's exactly what that investment builds.
Verified HOME RUN Change Database, source tracking, content-management infrastructure, and NYC-specific information
Ask HOME RUN AI prototype, retrieval from verified information, testing, safety design, and product engineering
Paid lived-experience advisory group, user research, accessibility testing, original tutorials, and pilot evaluation
Founder/product leadership, operations, community outreach, partner support, and first-year NYC pilot implementation
We are actively seeking: grants from foundations focused on criminal justice reform, reentry, digital equity, and workforce development. Fellowship programs for social entrepreneurs with lived experience. Impact investors aligned with justice and equity. Pilot partnerships with NYC reentry organizations.
If this is you — or you know who this is — please reach out.
Whether you're a funder, a reentry organization, a facility administrator, a journalist, or someone who simply wants to help — we want to hear from you.