Wed, Aug 27

“I didn’t drop out—I aged out of patience waiting on a system that never showed up.”
— Darnell, 23, digital media instructor, former dropout

That quote wasn’t meant to shock.
It was meant to summon a new kind of school—one built from lived experience, not standard issue.

Welcome to Restart Academy: Baltimore’s boldest second-chance education model, where students don’t just return—they rebuild.

🧨 Where the System Dropped the Ball

Baltimore’s dropout crisis hides deeper realities:

• 🍼 Youth parents without childcare

• 💼 Teens working full-time to keep lights on

• 📉 School reentry options that stop at GEDs

• 🧠 Untreated trauma walking into every classroom

These weren’t “disengaged” students. They were disqualified by design.

Restart Academy flipped the model:
Real-world pathways + real-time support = real change.

🔧 The Builders Behind the Rebuild

Dr. Lanita Hayes, former principal, and Corey McCall, reentry mentor, weren’t trying to reform the old system.
They scrapped it and started over.

With help from:

• City Councilwoman Marisol James

• Baltimore Reentry Network

• Morgan State & Coppin State for credit articulation

• Local employers ready to hire justice-involved youth

Their idea?
School that includes therapy, apprenticeships, parenting support, and entrepreneurship—all under one roof.

🎩 When I Walked Through the Door

Restart had a location.
A vision.
A waitlist.

What they didn’t have?

• A multi-layered funding blueprint

• A narrative that turned “risk” into ROI

• A grant strategist who could decode systems and reframe students as assets, not liabilities

That’s where I came in.
And that’s when we got to work.

🧠 What We Funded (and How)

We built a funding case rooted in equity, employment, and healing-forward education.

🎯 Key features:

• Coding + construction + parenting + poetry = core curriculum

• On-site therapists and financial literacy sessions

• GED + college + workforce pathways

• Daily meals + bus passes + childcare for 90+ young parents

• 1000+ opportunity youth pipeline over 3 years

🎯 Funders we engaged:

• U.S. Dept. of Labor – YouthBuild

• Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore-based)

• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative – Education Equity

• Lumina Foundation – Racial Justice in Adult Learning

🎯 Pitch video:
Darnell said it best:

“I’m not a mistake. I’m momentum. And this place? It’s my restart.”

💥 The Results: Numbers That Matter

In just 6 months:

• ✅ $4.2M raised

• ✅ 700 students enrolled

• ✅ 2 full-service campuses opened (East + West Baltimore)

• ✅ 76% placed in paid apprenticeships

• ✅ 90+ children cared for each week while their parents graduate

• ✅ Partnerships inked with Morgan State + 3 regional employers

Darnell?
He’s teaching digital media and producing a short film called “The Diploma They Never Meant for Me to Get.”

🧭 The Grant Money Gospel: Baltimore Edition

Here’s what this city’s comeback classroom taught me:

1. Second chances need first-class strategy.
   Big vision = big dollars. Don’t budget small for systemic redemption.

2. Learning must match life.
   Restart wrapped learning around lived experience—not the other way around.

3. Mental health = infrastructure.
   If trauma walks in, therapy needs to be the first period.

4. Wraparound is not extra.
   Childcare, meals, transit = the Wi-Fi of second-chance education.

5. Every restart starts a ripple.
   Darnell didn’t just graduate. He’s shaping the next generation’s story arc.

🚪 Who Deserves a Door in Your City?

Baltimore isn’t the only place with students who aged out, dropped out, or got pushed out.

Maybe in your town, it's not called Restart—but it's needed all the same.

You bring the people.
I’ll bring the grants.

Let’s open the door that never should’ve been closed.

— Mr. Grant Money

🛍 Explore More

• Elevate new models on the Mr. Grant Money Blog

• Stock your second-chance toolkit at the Mr. Grant Money Store

• Hear the sound of youth redemption on Mr. Grant Money Music

💬 Discussion Questions

1. What stops young people in your city from returning to school—and what would actually bring them back?

2. Why are mental health, food, and childcare essential—not optional—for adult learners?

3. How can cities shift the narrative from “dropout” to “comeback”?

4. Have you ever needed a restart? Who or what helped you through it?

5. Who are the unlikely heroes in your city who could lead a second-chance education movement?