I went to school for mental health and addiction counseling, so my passion was to work with adverse populations. I have a son with special needs and then I had a son with substance use concerns. I’ve worked with the Matthew Henson Community Association, and I’m a peer support specialist for a nonprofit – all these things have gotten me to want to help children and families.
The need is so great in Baltimore and I have a passion about always helping people, that’s just what I’ve done. God has led me in this direction to want to help people who normally don’t get the help and the services. I notice a lot of services people don’t even know about in Baltimore. I want to help them get some of these barriers out of their way and have a better life and joy, live a little and stop being so stressed and so bogged down.
I started in 2019, in February. I saw so many families in need, so many children suffering from childhood trauma. I live in Columbia right now, but I was born and raised in Baltimore City and I go back all the time, I see the hurt and the pain. I want to empower the parents, because they are their children’s advocates, so I started an organization that is family focused. I want to give away clothes, shoes, book bags, toiletries. I want to have a place that children can come and feel safe if they need to do their laundry.
My direction shifted, because people were in need and couldn’t get out. It was older people that couldn’t get food. I started getting calls from family members and friends who knew somebody who might need assistance. My husband and I would drive around and drop off bags of food. I didn’t really get a lot of funding, it came out of pocket. But the reward was so much greater than the money, so we just tried to help as many families as we could with things to hold them over. Right now I’m working with about 12 families, but I have helped over 20.
The need is so great, and people are really broken and confused, they feel worthless. I know, because I talk to a lot of people, and they feel like nobody cares, especially the children. How can you excel in that? You are expected to fail. I just try to help everybody feel like they are worthy, because they are. We’re all born equal, right?
I want to partner with Baltimore City Schools to do a pilot program with maybe five families each from the west side and the east side, and then expand that and follow them until they graduate. That’s the goal, to show how support and the determination of somebody who invests in people can help them to excel.
Sabrina Martin is the founder of Determine Your Destiny.
Special thanks to Zaniya Williams for assistance with interviewing and transcription for this story. Photo courtesy of Sabrina Martin.
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