When a Festival Meets a Movement: Tom Tom & the One Stop Shop
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
Walk into the One Stop and you'll immediately feel the energy. Dozens of organizations line the room, offering free resources, practical support, and plenty of swag. Music fills the space while conversations happen in every corner. At one table, the DMV helps people obtain driver's licenses. Nearby, licensed practitioners provide free acupuncture. Across the room, employers connect people directly with job opportunities.
The One Stop is a community-centered initiative designed to welcome people returning from incarceration with dignity, coordination, and care. Every other month, this one-stop hub opens up so people can access the services they need to successfully rebuild their lives after jail or prison—all under one roof.
The idea came to Martize "Tez" Tolbert in 2022, a year when Virginia released an unusually large number of people from prison following the implementation of the Earned Sentence Credit law. Tez is the National Director of Client & Community Engagement at the Fountain Fund and a Tom Tom Foundation Advisory Board member. He realized that thousands were returning home needing help navigating the transition—or face the likelihood of returning to incarceration.
The challenges facing returning citizens are steep, whether securing an ID, registering to vote, restoring their rights, accessing healthcare, finding employment, accessing housing, or connecting with community resources. Rather than directing people to visit dozens of agencies scattered across the region, Tez brought those agencies together in one place.
One of the first One Stop Shops occurred as part of the re-entry program at the Tom Tom Festival that year. The theme was TOGETHER, and bringing formerly incarcerated neighbors into the civic conversation was an important goal in storytelling about the future of the community.
In the years since, the One Stop has continued to be a part of the Tom Tom Festival each year. The most recent One Stop on July 23 focused on youth, bringing together organizations that serve young people alongside the youth themselves. The Tom Tom Foundation sponsored the event, making it a natural partnership with the festival's NEXTGEN theme.
photo credit: VPM's Charlottesville Inside Out
As Tez says, "Charlottesville is resource rich but connectivity poor."
The One Stop exists to change that.
Tez originally envisioned the One Stop as a temporary solution—a bridge until Charlottesville developed a permanent, coordinated reentry center. Four years later, the One Stop still takes place every other month because the need hasn't disappeared. While Charlottesville is home to countless organizations doing remarkable work, people returning from incarceration are often left to navigate a maze of disconnected services on their own.
Each year, more than 300 people are released from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and return to our community.
The free event is open to anyone in the community who could benefit from its assistance, regardless of incarceration history. Participants can access a wide array of necessary services such as:
medical and mental health care
substance use treatment and recovery support
legal assistance
help obtaining IDs, driver's licenses, and birth certificates
voter registration and rights restoration
financial coaching
career counseling and employment opportunities
housing navigation
education, training, and apprenticeship programs
"Community work is the best work," Tez says often.
It's more than a catchphrase—it's the philosophy behind the One Stop and a reflection of his own journey. For Tez, this work is personal. After serving a ten-year prison sentence, he experienced the challenges of reentry firsthand. Today, in his work with the Fountain Fund and as a Tom Tom Foundation board member, he spends his days connecting people with the resources and relationships they need to thrive.
