And the Winner is...Announcing the Winner of Our 2016 Make-An-IMPACT Website Project

Brace yourself, friends.

The winner is coming.

After reading through dozens of heartwarming and deserving submissions to our second annual “Make-An-IMPACT Website Project,” and much deliberation, we finally have a winner.

On behalf of our social responsibility team and IMPACT overall, I’m excited to introduce you to our winner, (drum roll, please)... TRAP House!

What is TRAP House?

Now, don’t let the name throw you. TRAP House is a budding business incubator based in the North End of Hartford that has been creating quite a buzz in the last year.

The founders of the organization have taken the widely-known slang term for a covert location where drug deals usually take place and redefined it.

TRAP, in this context, stands for Transforming, Reinventing, And Prospering and as explained by the Hartford Courant, “the acronym doubles as the organization’s mission statement.”

Founded by Bashaun Brown (second from right in the photo below), a reformed ex-con who served six years in Cheshire Correctional Institution for bank robbery, TRAP House’s goal is to help former drug dealers identify their true passions and pivot their natural entrepreneurial skills to the formal economy through higher education, financial aid, technical assistance, and professional networking. 

 The TRAP Team celebrating its #SummerOfSuccess at ReSET Social Enterprise Trust in Hartford.  Photo Source: TRAP House Facebook

"I looked back on my life and I realized I had wasted my natural abilities doing the wrong things," Brown shared with the Courant.

“‘I wanted to do some good, to give another option to kids growing through that life.’... Street hustlers are salesman at heart, [he] argues. And to be successful, they rely on the same skills as their counterparts in legitimate businesses.

‘They have a wonderful knowledge about supply and demand, they keep an eye on profits, they're risk-averse….The people overseeing drug deals are excellent leaders, team builders. All the things successful entrepreneurs have, dealers also have.’"

Making an IMPACT at TRAP House 

Last year, we donated a new website to Christmas Wish, a Connecticut-based charity that helps give local families in need a holiday season they've only dreamt of.

We loved being able to see the impact our design and marketing work had on their organization and all of the families it helps in return, and we want to do the same for TRAP House this year.

The IMPACT Social Responsibility Team with Will Barr, Director of Communications at TRAP House.

As entrepreneurs ourselves, we couldn’t be more excited to help TRAP House spread the word about its mission and the innovators it works with. 

We are thankful to able to share some of our time and professional knowledge to a worthy cause, while also helping Connecticut grow in the process. At only a few months old, the website designed, built, and fully-optimized by the IMPACT team will be the organization’s first.

 "[It] will be a huge factor in telling the success stories from TRAP House's pilot summer program,” said Brown upon hearing the news.  It will really help us escalate our reach and build off of these successes. Being a startup social enterprise means that we've got to put in as much of our resources into on-the-ground efforts as possible, and IMPACT's gifting of their services means that we can do that while still showcasing our mission in top-notch fashion." 

To learn more about TRAP House’s cause and businesses, “like” its Facebook here, and stay tuned for more information on the launch of their site.