Jarret Prussin and his DreamFi Platform Offer Stable Recovery Invaluable Tools

[Wandering Eyes]

In a development that could significantly bolster the long-term success of the graduates of the Thoroughbred industry's groundbreaking addiction recovery program, Stable Recovery, Jarret Prussin, co-founder of the successful social justice firm Ben Crump Law and a Thoroughbred owner and investor, is lending his expertise and a powerful new financial tool to Stable Recovery. Prussin, whose involvement has already yielded massive media exposure for the program, is now integrating his latest venture, DreamFi, to address what is undeniably a top risk for relapse: financial instability.

DreamFi, a financial technology company built to serve the financially challenged, will provide every program graduate with a free, funded account designed to build credit, secure savings, and help ensure their second chance at a meaningful career in the Thoroughbred industry is a permanent one.

Prussin is the Chief Strategy Officer at Ben Crump, a firm which is dedicated to ensuring justice for marginalized people in American society. They are widely known for their work on behalf of Black Americans shot, killed, or injured by police and or others–including Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery-and large personal injury cases, including the Flint, Michigan water crisis case.

Several years ago, he was working at a company he started, the Business Funding Group, which he and his partners had grown into one of the largest small business lenders in the country. Among those to whom he loaned money were lawyers.

“Providing loans to lawyers, it just never made sense to me, how you see these commercials on TV for lawyers and there was no real branding,” he said. “I was scratching my head, and when I put my daughter to sleep, I like to walk the backyard and just kind of do my thinking and it hit me.”

This was right after Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager walking home through a gated community carrying a bag of candy, was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. His family was being represented by Ben Crump.

Members of the Stable Recovery Program | Stable Recovery

“Ben Crump was a regional lawyer based then down in Florida, and Ben and I had a mutual friend. We had never met before, but we had a call one night and I said, `Ben, I have an idea on how I can help you expand your law firm to be a national brand.' I said, I think I could do this, this, this, this and this. And Ben's like, `you know what, Jarret, if you could pull it off, I'm in.' We raised tens of millions with no collateral. Fast forward, and today we have one of the largest social media following of any law firm on the planet.”

Prussin is now putting that social media following-and more-to work for Stable Recovery, the program created by Taylor Made's Frank Taylor and Christian Countzler to serve as a pathway from drug and alcohol rehabilitation to meaningful employment and a second chance at life.

The program has graduated 110 people, and estimates they have reunited over 1,800 family members who had been estranged due to an individual's addiction. It begins with a 90-day internship in the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship, where the men and women learn how to work with horses, and start to develop habits that can lead to lasting change. Stable Recovery then helps those in the program move on to careers in the industry with one of their 20-plus strategic partners.

Growing up, Prussin fell in love with horses through his father, George, a partner with Richard Santulli in Jayeff `B' Stables.

“I'm 47, and John Sikura has been one of my best friends since I was 22,” said Prussin. “I've done a lot of horse deals with John. We bought into Thorpedo Anna together with Ben Crump, with LL Cool J, with Marshawn Lynch, and I own a lot of shares at Hill 'n' Dale: Violence, Curlin, Charlatan, Arabian Knight. So I've been pretty heavily involved in the horse business.”

Early this year, he read one of the series of articles in the TDN on Stable Recovery program about one of the graduates, and was moved by the story. He called Frank Taylor, and told him he wanted to help.

“He read that story, and he called me and said, `man, I was blown away by what y'all are doing,'” recalled Frank Taylor of the call. “He said, I'm going to send you a check, but better than that, I'm going to provide my PR firm to help get Stable some exposure.”

They started with a PR strategy 90 days before the Kentucky Derby, and have achieved remarkable success.

Frank Taylor | Sue Finley photo

Taylor estimates that since Prussin's social media and PR teams took up the cause, there have been over 175 articles written on Stable Recovery, including features on the CBS Evening News, the Breeders' Cup telecast on NBC, and Fox. Amazon has talked about doing a film, and Taylor has been invited to Arizona to speak at the Racetrack Industry Program. Will Walden's TikTok dedicating his race on Kentucky Oaks Day to Stable Recovery was seen by over 12 million people, Prussin said.

“Jarret is very good at getting the word out, and it has helped us a ton,” said Taylor.

As it turns out, Prussin is just getting started.

In addition to his work at Ben Crump Law, Prussin is also the co-founder of DreamFi, a company which allows financially challenged people to build financial stability and generational prosperity through access to financial tools they are typically denied.

“There is such a wealth gap in this country,” said Prussin. “The average white person retires with about $120,000 in their bank account. The average Black person retires with just $11,000. The average credit score in a white neighborhood is 700 and change; the average credit score in a Black neighborhood is 500 and change.”

Prussin and Crump started DreamFi to address those problems, and now, they're making it available to the men and women in the Stable Recovery program.

Prussin said that through talking with Stable Recovery board members, he realized that people in recovery and the financially challenged individuals have a lot in common.

“Frank and Elliott Walden and Dan Pride have educated me that the number one reason you have a relapse is because of financial reasons,” said Prussin.

“So from now on, anyone going through the program gets a free DreamFi account and they're also going to get $100 from us to fund their account. If we can teach financial literacy and how to grow and protect your wealth, you're going to be able to continue to save families, save lives, and enhance lives.”
When users deposit their paychecks directly into DreamFi, not only are they paid interest on their checking accounts, but DreamFi makes sure that their bills are paid on time.

“The reason why many people have bad credit is that they're late on their $40 electric bill,” said Prussin. “More than 55% of African-Americans don't own a home; they rent, and renting is the most often largest expense people have. One of the components of DreamFi is that every month, we're going to report your good standings to the credit bureaus that you have made your monthly rent payment on time. That alone is going to increase your credit score by a significant amount. You are going start creating wealth savings, putting money away for college, putting money away for a home. And if you increase your credit score, then you have the ability to get access to capital and access to capital, as Ben likes to say, is the start of all other freedoms. And so we are serving the unbanked and the underbanked with this platform all across America.”

Both at Ben Crump Law, and at Stable Recovery, the appeal to Prussin has been giving people a second chance.

“What I've learned in life and from running the law firm is when someone is affected with a tragedy or substance abuse, it's not just the person, it's their entire family, friends, relatives, it's their whole ecosystem who is affected,” he said.

“They have changed thousands of lives with the success of Stable Recovery,” he said. “And that resonated with me. I believe people deserve a second chance in life. People make mistakes. Life is hard and sometimes you make the wrong decisions, but it doesn't mean you're a bad person. I have a percentage of my employees that we like to call `returning citizens' and now I treat them like family. They're doing the same thing with Stable Recovery. Dan Pride told me a story. They have people in Stable Recovery managing multi-million-dollar horses on a daily basis. I think that's incredible. And I think they're just scratching the surface.”

The post Jarret Prussin and his DreamFi Platform Offer Stable Recovery Invaluable Tools appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article