Hopeworks trains young adults in tech and professional skills and connects them to careers. For CEO Dan Rhoton, fighting poverty is also core to the mission.

Walking into Hopeworks’ new Kensington space is like walking into a tech startup, with its sea of computers and teams of young people — only these tech workers are as young as 17, and are learning to code and build tech products so that they might eventually secure a job in the tech industry with a living wage. Dan Rhoton, 48, the CEO, believes that the antidote to poverty is simple: Create jobs and train young people to fill them. “The way to end poverty is with money,” he says, adding, “I am only half-kidding.” We spoke with Rhoton about how he became the CEO of Hopeworks and why he believes his company is a tool to fight poverty in Philadelphia.

What inspired you to get involved with Hopeworks?

I planned to spend my career in education. I loved my job as a teacher and administrator at a detention facility. Those youngsters had drive. But they were using it in the wrong direction. I felt I could help them change course. I spent 15 years there, and I thought I’d retire there.

Then one day, I saw a former student dealing drugs on a street corner. He called out to me; and he and his friends came over, and he told them what a great teacher I was. And I said, “Thanks, but I would feel a lot better about it if you weren’t standing on a street corner dealing drugs.”

What he said next changed my life. He told me he’d done everything I’d advised — gotten his diploma, his education — but still couldn’t get a job. I had seen him work hard, but still, he wasn’t able to get a start. I’d always told my students that education was the key to success, but my student’s experience made me question everything. For 15 years, I suddenly felt like I’d been selling them a lie.

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