ONE YOUNG MAN
Before Anyone Tells Him What to Do
He grew up in Baltimore. Maybe his grandmother raised him because his mother could not. Maybe addiction was in the home. Maybe he saw violence before he was old enough to understand it. He may have started getting into trouble young, and by the time he became an adult, he already had children of his own.
Now everyone has advice for him. Get a job. Be a better father. Stay out of trouble. Build a career.
But nobody asks what is standing in the way.
Maybe the barrier is:
He does not have a driver’s license or reliable transportation
His phone has been disconnected
He has never owned professional clothes
Reading and math were always a struggle, so applications are hard
He has a record
Or maybe it is harder to see:
Anxiety, depression, anger, or trauma he has never talked about
Years of things no one ever asked him about
Programs that promised help before and nothing changed
Being told what is wrong with him so many times that he stopped believing anything could be right with him
He is not broken. He has potential that no one has taken the time to see.
That is the person HFAC wants to reach.
BALTIMORE BY THE NUMBERS
Why These Barriers Are Real
A few numbers help explain what the young man in this story may be up against, and why preparation matters as much as opportunity.
71.7%
Four-year graduation rate, Baltimore City Public Schools, Class of 2025
More than one in four students did not graduate in four years, which can close the door to training, apprenticeships, and many jobs.
Source: Baltimore City Public Schools, January 2026
13.3%
of Baltimore City students were proficient in math, 2025–26
Applied math is part of the skilled trades, apprenticeship entrance tests, and managing a paycheck.
Source: Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), 2025–26
32.9%
of Baltimore City students were proficient in English language arts, 2025–26
Reading affects everything from job applications and training manuals to safety documents and entrance exams.
Source: Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), 2025–26
3.8×
Men die by suicide at nearly four times the rate of women in the United States
Many men carry pain quietly. Trusted mental health support can help save lives.
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, 2023 data
Getting to work is its own barrier
Baltimore research points to the same obstacle again and again. A March 2026 Abell Foundation report found that many Baltimore jobseekers struggle to find and keep work because they lack reliable transportation, pointing to driver’s-license requirements, the cost of owning and insuring a car, and limited transit to the region’s growing job centers. Earlier Abell-published research on apprenticeships found that transportation, childcare, educational requirements, and past justice-system involvement can make it harder for city residents to enter and complete apprenticeships.
This is why transportation help, driver’s-license support, and barrier removal are not extras in HFAC’s workforce model. A job opportunity means very little if someone cannot reliably get to it.
Sources: Abell Foundation, License to Work (March 2026); Expanding Apprenticeships in Maryland, published by the Abell Foundation (January 2025)
The numbers explain the size of the problem. The story explains why it matters. The young man who needs a ride to work is part of the transportation numbers. The young father looking for a job is part of the workforce numbers. The man carrying trauma is behind the mental health numbers.
The statistics describe thousands of people. HFAC’s work happens one person at a time.
WHEN HE ASKS FOR HELP
The Moment He Is Ready
Some young people are making money in ways that are illegal or unsafe, and some of them want out. He may be supporting himself. He may have a child. He may be helping his mother or other family members keep the lights on.
If he finally asks for help, we cannot hand him a phone number and tell him to wait for somebody to call him back. That moment may be the only opening we get. You cannot ask someone to walk away from the only income they know and then leave them with nothing to replace it.
That is why HFAC is building SFAC, a 16-week paid pre-apprenticeship for Baltimore City young adults ages 18 to 24. The goal is a real bridge into legitimate income, job training, and an apprenticeship or career pathway that lets him take care of himself and the people who depend on him.
What staying in the opportunity can require:
Literacy support and applied math
Help understanding workplace documents
Communication skills
Transportation and professional clothing
Mentorship and coaching
Food assistance
Help keeping a phone connected
Industry certifications
Someone checking in when life starts getting difficult
A Referral Alone Is Not a Bridge
Referrals matter, and we make them. But for someone leaving the only income he knows, the handoff is where people get lost. HFAC wants to stay with him through that first stretch instead of pointing him somewhere and hoping it works out.
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
One Problem Rarely Stays One Problem
Picture a young man staying with a woman he already knows is not the right relationship for him. He stays because he has nowhere else to go. He does not make enough to get his own place, he has no reliable way to get around, and there is nobody he trusts enough to ask for help. The arguments start happening every day. Then a pregnancy comes before either of them feels ready, and now he is trying to figure out how to provide for a child while he still has not found stable ground for himself.
Nobody in that story is the villain. Housing, money, relationships, and parenting got tangled together before anyone had the guidance or support to slow things down. That is how one problem turns into five.
When he struggles, it can affect
His children and his relationship with his family
Housing stability and financial security
His mental health
The likelihood of returning to the justice system
Neighborhood stability and community violence
The next generation
When he finds stability, it can mean
A father who can contribute to his household
Children who see him leave for work each morning
A calmer, more secure home
Better decisions under pressure
A family that can begin planning ahead
One more neighbor with something to build and protect
SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN THERE
Telling Is Not the Same as Showing
Some of the young men HFAC is trying to reach did not grow up with a consistent father. Some never had any trusted adult showing them the everyday things most people take for granted.
Telling someone what he should do is not the same as showing him how to get there. People are more likely to accept guidance from someone they believe understands where they have been. Someone who has been through hardship, made mistakes, rebuilt, and can lead by example.
Some never had anyone show them how to:
-
Handle responsibility
-
Deal with conflict
-
Build healthy relationships
-
Keep a job
-
Plan ahead and manage money
-
Be present for their children
-
Recover after making a mistake
Sometimes the first person a young man listens to is the one who can honestly say, “I understand. I have been through something too, and I can show you another way.”
Lived experience is not just part of HFAC’s story. It is part of how we earn trust.
WHAT MATTERS TO HIM
Start With What He Wants
HFAC does not assume every young person is motivated by the same thing. The first question is simple: what does he want his life to become?
For one young man, the answer is big and clear. For another, it is smaller and closer to home. He may just want to earn enough money, legally, to buy himself an Under Armour sweatsuit and a new pair of New Balance tennis shoes. That might sound small to somebody else. It may not feel small to him. If that is what gets him excited about a paycheck, saving money, and showing up for work, we start there and help him build toward something bigger.
For one young man, it might be:
-
Getting his own place
-
Taking care of his children
-
Buying a car
-
Helping his mother
-
Building a career
-
Becoming the father and man he wants to be
-
Earning respect
-
Proving something to himself
The point is not to tell someone what should matter to them. The point is to find what already matters and help them build from there.
A first paycheck can turn into savings. Savings can turn into independence. Showing up on time can turn into a career and a more stable home.
SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A Future Worth Working Toward
Some young people have spent so much time surviving that they have never had room to think about what they want their life to look like. Sometimes they need to see it first: a professional workplace, a training site, a successful local business, a retreat outdoors, people who came from where they came from and built careers anyway. The goal is not one nice day. It is helping him picture what could be possible for his own life. Sometimes people need to see something better before they can believe something better is possible.
A father takes his children somewhere they have never been. They enjoy it. They feel comfortable. They ask to come back. He starts thinking, “I want my kids to have more of this.” Maybe he wants them to have a home they are proud to come back to, or places and opportunities he never had growing up. That feeling can be what keeps him in training when it gets hard, gets him saving, and helps him make a different decision on a bad day. Before we can ask someone to work toward a future, we have to help them see a future worth working toward.
Sometimes what stands between a man and that future is something small.
The bus pass
The impact is not the bus pass. It is where the bus pass allows him to go.
The suit
The impact is not the suit. It is the interview he walks into wearing it.
The phone bill
The impact is not one phone bill. It is the employer who can reach him with a job offer.
MENTAL HEALTH
Pain That Goes Unspoken
Men are often expected to carry pain quietly. Many have lived through childhood trauma, violence, incarceration, family separation, financial pressure, relationship conflict, grief, rejection, fear, or isolation.
Pain that is never spoken does not simply disappear. It can surface as anger, withdrawal, substance use, or decisions that make a hard situation harder.
Trusted mental health support can affect:
How a father parents
His relationships
Whether he keeps a job
How he makes decisions under pressure
How he handles anger
Substance use
Overall stability
Whether he survives a crisis
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
With community partners, HFAC helps fathers, young people, and families connect with trusted mental health support, and works to make asking for help feel like strength rather than weakness.
COMMUNITY SAFETY
Building Alternatives, Not Just Warnings
Most young men who struggle to find work never become involved in crime, and no single program can promise to prevent it. What we can say is that certain supports protect young people, and together they can contribute to stronger and more stable communities.
Baltimore recorded 133 homicides in 2025, the fewest in nearly 50 years. Sustaining that progress means continuing to invest in young people.
Source: City of Baltimore, Office of the Mayor, January 2026
Protective supports we are working to build:
Real employment and career pathways
Mentors and positive relationships
Mental health support
Stable income
A sense of purpose
Something meaningful to lose
You cannot tell a young man to choose a different path if nobody has helped him see that another path exists.
HFAC’s approach is not simply telling someone to stay out of trouble. It is helping build the alternatives.
STRONGER FAMILIES
It All Comes Back to Families
When a father becomes more stable, his children can benefit. When a young man develops confidence and steady work, his household can benefit. When a parent receives mental health support, communication at home can improve. When a family has more financial stability, other pressures can ease.
And when fathers are meaningfully involved in their children’s lives, children have another source of love, guidance, accountability, and support.
Stronger people create stronger families, and stronger families help create stronger communities.
HOW IT CONNECTS
Why One Program Is Not Enough
When someone comes to HFAC needing work, a ride, a steadier place to live, a mentor, a way back after incarceration, or help being a father, those needs are usually tied together. HFAC wants to understand what is keeping someone stuck, what motivates him, what support is missing, and what real opportunity can move him forward.
We are not trying to become everything to everyone. But removing one barrier while ignoring the others can leave someone right back where he started.
01 Find what already matters to him.
02 Show him something different.
03 Turn that motivation into a plan.
04 Connect him to paid training, mentoring, and a real job or apprenticeship.
05 Stay with him while he builds stability.
06 A steadier man can become a steadier father.
07 Keep measuring whether it is working.
HONEST PROGRESS
How We Will Know It’s Working
HFAC is a young, grassroots nonprofit, and we would rather be honest about where we are than oversell it. We will always keep what has already happened separate from what is underway and what we are still building.
What has already happened
-
August 2026: HFAC held its first Viral 4 A Vision workshop at the University of Baltimore School of Law, with approximately 20 participants.
-
HFAC held a Fathers Retreat in Saugatuck, Michigan, focused on wellness, reflection, brotherhood, and support.
-
The DSW Foundation awarded HFAC $5,000 to support Confidence in the Community.
-
HFAC founder Jerron Hurtt Sr. testified on SB 744 before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
-
The University of Baltimore School of Law’s Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) has provided a letter of support and assistance connected to the development of SFAC.
What is underway right now
HFAC is preparing SFAC, its 16-week paid pre-apprenticeship pilot for Baltimore City young adults ages 18 to 24, with a first cohort of about 25 participants.
Achieving Our Dreams (AOD) is still in development, with support from the University of Baltimore.
What we are building toward
As SFAC gets underway, we plan to measure:
-
Enrollment and program completion
-
Employment or apprenticeship placement
-
Job retention at 90 days, with follow-up at 6 and 12 months
-
Certifications earned
-
Literacy and applied-math progress
-
Transportation barriers resolved
-
Mental health and community-resource connections
-
Continued engagement with fathers and families
Getting someone through the door matters. What happens after they walk through it matters more.
These are measures HFAC will track as programs grow, not results we have already achieved. Planned services and projected outcomes will never be presented as completed results.
INVEST IN THE NEXT STEP
What Investment Makes Possible
Support for HFAC goes toward removing the barriers that keep people from starting an opportunity, or from finishing it.
Passion started this work, but passion can only take an organization so far.
HFAC may understand what someone needs. We may earn his trust. We may be the place he finally feels comfortable asking for help. But if we do not have the funding and the staff to respond when he is ready, that moment can pass. When someone finally asks for help, compassion matters. We also need the resources to do something about it.
Sometimes the difference between entering an opportunity and completing it is not motivation. It is whether someone helped remove the barrier that made staying impossible.