The Hidden Costs of Success

When I founded DSS, I imagined a world where young Black men in Durham didn’t have to choose between surviving and thriving. I dreamed of a city where our young men could walk into jobs that respected their brilliance, where mentorship and opportunity were within reach, and where Black boys growing up here could imagine themselves as CEOs, leaders, and changemakers because they had seen it happen before. However, if there’s anything the past five years have taught me, it’s that our young men are facing barriers far deeper than anyone wants to admit—and if we truly want to be a city that uplifts them, we have to stop focusing on flashy new programs and start breaking down the obstacles that keep them stuck. Let me tell you what I mean.

Every year, we have more young men applying to DSS than we can serve—this year alone, we had to turn away nearly 30 young men due to limited resources. But here’s the truth: it’s not enough to just bring more young men through the door. Because if we do that without addressing the barriers that keep them from succeeding—barriers like transportation, technology access, food insecurity, and family responsibilities—we’re setting them up to fail.

I’ve had Scholars show up to class after walking three miles because they couldn’t afford a bus ride. I’ve had young men miss job interviews because they couldn’t find Wi-Fi to submit an application or didn’t have a working phone to answer an employer’s call. I’ve had Scholars sitting in our sessions hungry because they had to choose between groceries and gas. These are not theoretical issues—these are real choices our Scholars face every single day.

So as much as we love to talk about growth and scaling, I’ve realized that at DSS, we need to go deeper before we go wider. We need to focus on removing the everyday barriers that block our young men from success.

That’s why we’re launching our Barrier Reduction Fund, a dedicated pool of resources that allows us to respond directly and quickly when a Scholar needs support. Whether that’s paying for bus passes so they can get to work, covering the cost of certification programs at Durham Tech that lead to real jobs, buying refurbished laptops so they can apply to jobs, or making sure they have professional clothes for interviews—this fund is about making sure our young men don’t have to choose between surviving and pursuing their future.

We are also focused on building real career pathways that match the reality of our young men’s lives—not just theoretical workshops, but real jobs in fields like energy, technology, healthcare, and entrepreneurship. But no career pathway works if a Scholar can’t get to training because his car broke down or if he has to drop out of a program to care for a younger sibling.

Going deeper means recognizing that our young men are already working hard—harder than most people know—but what they need is a city and a community that’s willing to work just as hard for them.

So, if you’re reading this and you believe, like I do, that every young Black man in Durham deserves a real shot at success—not just lip service—I’m asking you to give.

Your donation to our Barrier Reduction Fund goes straight to Scholars—no overhead, no fluff—just real help for real needs. It means that when a Scholar says, “I want to get my GED but can’t afford the class,” we can say yes. It means when a Scholar says, “I got the job, but I need work boots to start,” we can say yes.

If we want to build a Durham where young Black men lead and thrive, we need to start saying yes more often.

👉 Donate today to the DSS Barrier Reduction Fund: [Link to donate]