Baqir Mujahid – Speaker

Shortly after his release, Baqir Mujahid sought the services of Community Success Initiative to network and find opportunities to assist in a smooth reentry. This led to taking a Building your Business class through CSI’s collaboration with Good Work, another Triangle area nonprofit.

For two years Baqir owned and successfully ran Block Stylz, an urban clothing store in Durham. During the economic downturn, which forced the layoffs of about 40% of his regular customers, Baqir closed  the store to regroup and work on his next business venture. While building the  success of his business, he has also worked as a job developer and placement  specialist for area youth serving programs including the student population at  New Horizons School, an alternative school in Durham.

In addition to the business class, he credits the streets of Brooklyn, New York  and Durham, North Carolina for his “real education”. Although formally  educated in Brooklyn, New York, he feels his prison experience and his  subsequent return have enabled him to provide a message to youth, ex-offenders and those who seek to help with reentry in the form of his “Conscious Choice” curricula which he created based on real life experiences of both incarceration and redemption.

When he is not spending time with his family, he mentors at risk youth and  advocates for better program services to move them from the streets to success. His advocacy has been in the form of lectures, as well as on radio and local  television.