Klause Ferrell was 14 when he was kicked out of his house by his abusive father. At the time, he says, he “took the opportunity that he gave me and shoved off.

“I assumed I could take on the world without assistance. I didn't need help, I didn't need anyone, so I slept outside at playgrounds and in the woods. I did that for 10 years.”

During those 10 years, Klause finished both high school and college and moved from North Carolina to Baltimore. And in 2015, he became father to his daughter Lasaura, which came with a whole new set of life challenges, he says—and a chance for a life reset.

“It was hard enough for me to find resources for myself, to be able to take care of myself—that was enough of a stress on an everyday basis. But having to look at myself in the capacity of being a provider and father, I knew that I had to go beyond more than just myself. So that's what started my journey into looking for assistance and resources for me to be able to better myself, and also to be able to provide for my child at the very same time.”

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Klause’s journey started with securing stable housing through St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and participating in HeARTworks, the workforce development arm of Art With A Heart for youth ages 14-24. Through HeARTworks, Klause created marketable art to sell in Art with a Heart’s social enterprise and retail store, HeARTwares; received a daily stipend; set personal goals and future plans; and learned the flow of a professional workplace.

“I always knew that I could be better. I always knew that there was more for me than experiencing what I was experiencing every day. After getting out of the situation with my father and putting myself through high school, putting myself into college, there's nothing I can't do. I literally crawled out of the mud and got on a bus: I can do it.”

And along the way, Klause got full custody of his daughter.

“So that was my first time being able to take the full responsibility of being a father and having my child to myself. That was a challenge that I wanted to endure, because I wanted that experience with my child. Because before it was always dad’s coming for the day or dad’s coming for a few hours and then I’ve got to go back out in the streets or I’ve got to go back and do this I got to go back and do that to make money. I had to do a lot of different things in order to make money.”

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Today, Klause works fulltime as a member of the Art With A Heart team in the HeARTwares store. Earlier this month he reflected on what the training and employment opportunity at Art With A Heart have meant to him with a first-person article on their website. Read it here.

He also reflects a lot on being a father to Lasaura, who is 5 years old and readying to start school in September.

“This is my very first child and being a father was something I've always wanted to embrace because that's something that was negligent of me receiving, so I want to be able to provide it to someone else. I wanted to be able to know what it is to experience fatherly love.

“No matter where you are in your stage of life, parenting is going to be a challenge, there’s always going to be a new experience, and that's something that I carry with me on a day-to-day basis.”