Entrepreneurship as
a Recovery Strategy

Step Out is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women transitioning from addiction, incarceration, and trafficking. We foster their self-confidence and self-efficacy by providing skills development to foster health, well being, and financial independence.

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Checks can be sent to Step Out Inc. 106 Cayuga Ct, Burlington VT, 05408

Our Mission

Step Out facilitates women's transition through healing the whole person: mind, body, and spirit; guiding participants to reclaim personal agency and find fulfillment.

Our mission is to nurture whole-person recovery, promoting stronger, long-term outcomes by developing skills and building community through shared gardening experiences, vital nutrition education, and financial literacy programming.

Our Purpose

Step Out utilizes an Agro-Socio-Ecological model to foster deep healing and lasting recovery for women. This means we recognize that a person's well-being is profoundly connected to their community and the natural world. Through engaging horticulture activities and connection to the land, we help women rebuild their lives by cultivating a strong sense of purpose and structure—essential for maintaining sobriety and thriving. Our approach highlights how food producing practices and a healthy environment directly support individual health, build strong communities, and contribute to overall well-being.

LIFE Program

Step Out specializes in trauma-informed programming directly within our residence. Step Out's principal offering integrates evidence-informed microfinance principles with transformative learning strategies to promote financial independence. Beyond the curriculum, the program provides crucial residential support, fosters community building through strong networks and mentorship, and includes a permaculture initiative...

Read more about our LIFE Program here.

Addressing the Issues at Hand

"Step Out is unique and important in facilitating transformative change for women to find purposeful work."

- Cheryl Diersch, Step Out Executive Director

Support against Recidivism

When Mercy Corp asked LIFE graduates barriers to reintegration, what would help keep them out of prison; more women cited types of social support or personal accountability, rather than structural supports:

“I feel like I’m up against a wall because I don’t have a job, so I can’t get my own apartment, so I can’t get my son. As soon as I have an apartment, I can have him overnight on weekends, and then he can come home.”

Many women talked about how overwhelming the cultural shift from being in prison to being out and identified the resulting anxiety as a barrier:

“At first, I still felt like I had that big orange stamp on my back. And then it just all of a sudden went away. Oh, it was very hard at first. As time went by, it became much easier for me.”

LIFE graduate interviewees said action planning and communication were the two life skills most often mentioned as being helpful:

“My communication skills are a lot better. I’m more aware of what people are feeling or thinking. Because of that class, I take that into consideration instead of just jumping the gun and reacting…I’m more aware of what I’m saying than I was before, which is good, because that was one of my downfalls before.”

ACLU of Vermont Executive Director, James Lyall continues:

“After years in decline, Vermont’s prison population is again increasing. That trend is fueled in part by our community supervision system—probation, parole, and furlough—which returns people to prison at the highest rate in the country, 70% of those for technical violations like lack of housing and curfew violations.”

News and Events


LIFE Program


March 8, 2020

Community News


June 1, 2018