Community Champions: 2nd Call, a nonprofit works to uplift ex-offenders

LOS ANGELES - Saving lives. That's the mission of the 2nd Call organization that works with ex-offenders. 

Skipp Townsend is the founder and after serving time in prison himself, he is now the executive director of a nonprofit that was honored by the NFL and Los Angeles' Super Bowl Host Committee.  

2nd Call was among 56 Los Angeles organizations honored at SoFi Stadium this summer ahead of Super Bowl LVI. Each nonprofit was awarded a $10,000 grant, then six of those organizations were named for the $50,000 grants. 

2nd Call was one of them, accepting the grant on the field just before Christmas.

Their door is open largely to people who'd been in prison. It starts with their classes with "re-entry life skills, family violence programs that we have." Their goal is to stop the violence. 

2nd call has evolved into creating careers in construction, but it all starts with life skills.

Townsend guesses they've changed the lives of 2,000 or 3,000 people. It's a huge accomplishment for a man who thought he'd end up dead or doing life in prison.

In next week's segment, we'll meet two of their success stories. Here is a video produced by the Super Bowl committee to further the legacy of 2nd Call: 

Each week in Community Champions, FOX 11 will showcase another grant recipient leading up to Super Bowl 2022 in Los Angeles. For more information on the Super Bowl LVI Legacy Program and the selected nonprofit organizations, click here.