Building from the ground up: Formerly incarcerated men thrive in new woodshop after fire

When working with wood, there are a few critical rules.

Measure carefully. A difference as small as a centimeter means a lot, and too big an error can’t be undone.

Put your tools away. Take care of your space. This isn’t a woodworking-specific rule so much as a general tip for an orderly life. 

And of course, watch for moving blades. That speaks for itself.

But there’s one vital rule to the woodworking process that’s so common it inspired an everyday figure-of-speech.

Don’t go against the grain. The phrase is an idiom about resisting societal norms or the status quo. It comes from the fact that cutting against the wood’s grain, the internal pattern of fibers, can result in chipping.

In the woodshop, Jerry Blassingame plays by the rules. But outside, as executive director of Soteria Community Development Corporation and Senior Pastor of Soteria Christian Fellowship, he does anything but.

Soteria CDC, a nonprofit in Greenville focused on assisting those recently released from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, offers transitional housing and other services. The organization offers transitional job opportunities at Soteria at Work, a program where recently released men learn to dismantle houses and turn the usable materials into woodworking projects.