Baltimore (CNN) — Marcus Dixon refers to a tattoos on his face as a “art of war”: an eye etched on his forehead, 5 stars down a left side of his face, and a difference “don’t cry” on his eyelids.

The tattoos are permanent reminders of his past life as a drug dealer.

Dixon got a tattoos, he said, to send a summary to his enemies and a military to leave him alone.

“I had to emanate a impression that no one would brave challenge,” he said.

But Dixon’s mom and his best crony feared for his safety. They staged an involvement and assured him to make a uninformed start.

Dixon stopped offered drugs and changed to Atlanta. But with a rapist record and no connections, he had a formidable time anticipating a job. After a few months, he changed behind to Baltimore, dejected.

“I was during a lowest of my lows,” he said.

He also wasn’t in hit with his dual sons, that uneasy him given his possess father hadn’t been concerned in his life.

“I was confused, lost, and didn’t have a smallest thought of how to be a good father,” pronounced Dixon, now 30. “I didn’t have examples that could beam me.”

Dixon’s opinion began to change, however, when he followed his mother’s recommendation and went to a Center for Urban Families in Baltimore. There, he’s gotten pursuit training, life skills and support that have done him many some-more assured about his future.

Since 1999, a core has helped thousands of Baltimore residents find jobs and enabled hundreds of fathers to spin some-more obliged parents.

“What we wish to do is get these people above belligerent and behind into a mainstream,” pronounced Joe Jones, a nonprofit’s owner and CEO. “We assistance them get them jobs so they can compensate taxes and child support.”

Most men, like Dixon, travel by a center’s doors since they need assistance anticipating a job.

But Jones believes that jobs are usually a initial step. For him, a pivotal to formulating genuine change in Baltimore’s uneasy communities is finale what he calls “the cycle of father absence.”

“If we don’t moment a formula of organisation carrying babies for whom they’re not obliged for, all of a efforts to build a improved Baltimore will be limited,” pronounced Jones, 57.

“We’re there to emanate a pathway to assistance them to know how to start to take on that responsibility.”

According to a 2012 American Community Survey usually expelled by a U.S. Census Bureau, some-more than 19 million children opposite a nation — 26% — are vital though a father in a home. In Baltimore, among African-American children, a rate is 69%.

Jones says many of a organisation he tries to assistance grew adult though fathers themselves. He also knows that children who grow adult though fathers are some-more expected to spin teen parents, use drugs and dedicate crimes, according to a National Fatherhood Initiative.

“The one thing that is unchanging with all these organisation is that they wish to be concerned with a lives of their children, though they usually don’t know how,” Jones said.

His nonprofit runs a Responsible Fatherhood module to give organisation a support and collection they need to spin improved relatives and retreat a cycle.

A vast partial of that is assisting organisation with their financial responsibilities. Jones says we can’t correct a problem of deadbeat dads unless we residence that many of them are passed broke. In a 4 Baltimore ZIP Codes where Jones’ nonprofit works, there are scarcely 3,000 organisation who together owe some-more than $40 million in child support, according to a Maryland Department of Human Resources.

When Dixon initial came to a Center for Urban Families, he due $47,000 in child support. The distance of this debt disheartened him from seeking employment, he said, since it customarily usually paid smallest salary and many of his salary would be garnished.

But a advisor during a core helped Dixon arrange a devise with Child Support Services, that forgave some-more than $30,000 of his debt as prolonged as he stayed employed.

The core also helped Dixon land a full-time pursuit — loading trucks on a overnight change during a wardrobe room — so he could acquire income while holding classes during Baltimore City Community College. Dixon, who now covers his tattoos with makeup each day, is 6 credits divided from earning his associate’s grade in ubiquitous studies. He skeleton to request to some-more colleges shortly to investigate pharmacology and molecular sciences.

Jones’ module also teaches organisation that being a father is about some-more than finances. They are taught nurturing skills, such as how to change diapers and promulgate with their kids.

“You have a organisation of organisation vocalization about issues they are carrying about their children,” Dixon said. “That’s unheard of. Men don’t do that, generally black organisation in a neighborhoods that we come from.

“Without these meetings, we would not know how to be a father.”

Dixon has now embraced his purpose as a dad. He recently filed for visitation rights with his eldest son, who is 10 years old, and he takes his younger son, age 3, to propagandize during slightest 3 times a week.

“The initial day we took him to school, we got a clarity of fatherhood,” Dixon said. “It has done me feel (like) some-more of a man.”

Jones knows firsthand a struggles Dixon endured and a compensation he feels from carrying incited his life around. It’s a mutation he gifted himself.

Jones grew adult in Baltimore and remembers a day his possess father left, when he was 9 years old. As a teenager, Jones became a heroin and heroin addict and spent 17 years offered drugs and committing sparse crimes to support his habit, spending time in and out of jail.

Jones pronounced his biggest bewail is that when he was 21, he had a son who he didn’t take shortcoming for.

In 1986, after being charged with mixed drug-related offenses, Jones motionless to spin his life around. He begged a residential reconstruction module to let him into a program, and he swayed a decider to let him finish a one-year rehab instead of going to jail.

“I didn’t wish to go to jail anymore,” Jones said. “I was physically and psychologically sleepy and my demur was bothering me.”

Jones warranted his associate’s grade during Baltimore City Community College, and he says he hasn’t looked back. He found a array of nonprofit jobs and was hired by a Baltimore City Department of Health, eventually operative on an beginning to urge maternal and child health.

Working there, in a early 1990s, it struck him that there were no programs for fathers.

So in 1992, Jones started a Men’s Services module during a Department of Health, and a knowledge led him to found his nonprofit 7 years later.

“It’s my approach of giving behind … in ways in that we took from my village many years ago,” Jones said.

Now married, he’s lifted dual children with his mother and has been means to correct his attribute with his eldest son Trey. Today, they mostly go to ball games together, along with Jones’ youngest son.

Jones’ turnaround is an impulse to Dixon and a other organisation in his program.

“When we schooled Joe’s story, (it) flattering many blew me away,” Dixon said. “And demeanour what he has obtained. So nothing’s impossible.

“He’s some-more than a purpose model. He’s that North Star.”

Now Dixon feels assured that he can follow Jones’ example.

“Joe authorised me to find and revive my dignity,” he said. “That’s one of a biggest things that we can offer anyone.”

“You can’t spin a improved father though being a improved man.”

Want to get involved? Check out a Center for Urban Families website and see how to help.