Safety
We respond to immediate risks and help create safer pathways for individuals, families, and neighborhoods.
- Violence prevention and outreach
- Victim advocacy
- Conflict mediation and restorative justice
Community rooted. Impact without borders.
Freedom begins
with opportunity.
We help people and communities affected by violence, instability, and exploitation find safety, support, and a path forward.
11–35Youth & young adults served
Whole-personTrauma-informed support
Community-ledSolutions built together
Who we are
A sanctuary of hope—and a bridge to what comes next.
Access Freedom was founded in 2017 by Tracey G. Kerr, formerly a pastor in Englewood. It serves youth and families impacted by gun violence, gangs, homelessness, exploitation, and victimization. We meet people with compassion, credible support, and practical resources.
Our work addresses urgent needs while confronting the deeper barriers created by poverty, racial injustice, trauma, and limited opportunity. We walk alongside young people as they heal, grow, and build futures defined by their own dreams—not their circumstances.
Read our missionOur approach
Safety. Stability. Opportunity.
Access Freedom interrupts violence and addresses the conditions that can keep people and communities trapped in it.
Stability
We help people build the support systems, skills, and relationships needed to move beyond crisis.
- Case management and mentoring
- Behavioral health and healing support
- Family support and life skills
Opportunity
We connect participants to education, income, technology, and career pathways that support lasting freedom.
- Employment and entrepreneurship
- Financial capability and education
- AI, digital skills, and career pathways
Our evidence-based continuum
Two programs. One pathway to freedom.
Our model reaches people from early adolescence through adulthood at the moments when support can change the direction of a life.
Community Violence InterventionAges 16–35
Freedom Streets
Reaches and stabilizes people at the highest risk of involvement in gun violence—as victims or those at risk of retaliation—and moves them toward safety, healing, and opportunity.
- Street outreach and violence interruption
- Intensive case management and transformational mentoring
- Victim and survivor services
Youth Violence PreventionAges 11–18
Freedom Rising
Surrounds at-risk youth with credible mentors, restorative practices, and family and school supports that keep them engaged and out of the justice system.
- Credible-messenger mentoring
- Restorative justice and school partnerships
- Attendance, truancy, and family support
Credible messengersPublic-health approachTrauma-informed careData-informed strategy
What we do
Think big. Act bigger.
Seven connected programs help create safer blocks, stronger families, and pathways to lasting economic opportunity.
Public Safety
Community-driven violence prevention through outreach, conflict mediation, root-cause identification, and nonviolence strategies.
Violence interventionOperation Transformation
Mentorship for highest-risk individuals ages 13–35, including youth ages 13–17 and adults ages 18–35. Credible guides support mentees with life skills, CBI, job readiness, and entrepreneurship.
MentorshipVictim Services
Compassionate advocacy, resources, case management, and mediation for people affected by gun violence and domestic violence.
Care & recoveryBooks on the Block
Neighborhood book clubs and accessible print, audio, and reader editions that strengthen literacy and expand what communities imagine possible.
LiteracyRock the Block
Residents and partners reclaim shared spaces through cleanups, repairs, boarding, painting, and landscaping—because clean communities are safer communities.
Neighborhood prideMoney Talks
Practical financial education covering budgeting, saving, basic investing, credit building, and responsible money management.
Financial freedom07
Workforce Development
Age-appropriate pathways prepare participants for sustainable employment, entrepreneurship, and emerging career opportunities. Youth ages 11–18 receive career and technology exposure; participants ages 16–35 receive intensive career-readiness and economic-mobility support.
Skills to income- Career readinessAssessments, résumés, interviews, workplace skills, internships, apprenticeships, and job placement
- EntrepreneurshipBusiness planning, pricing, marketing, business finances, credit, and launch support
- AI, coding & digital skillsGenerative AI, responsible technology use, websites, HTML/CSS, no-code tools, and cybersecurity awareness
- Credentials & partnershipsTraining pathways and connections to employers, colleges, workforce agencies, and business mentors
Our mission
Turning vulnerability into victory.
Access Freedom empowers high-risk youth with sanctuary and transformative resources amid poverty, gangs, gun violence, and systemic injustice. Through mental health support, trauma-informed care, education, mentorship, and financial literacy, we create pathways to prosperity and true freedom.
“Freedom begins from within—but sometimes it takes a helping hand to discover that strength.”
Training & technical assistance
Build community safety work that lasts.
We help nonprofits and municipalities reduce community violence and build the organizational capacity to sustain results.
Our support is grounded in years of frontline Community Violence Intervention experience. We bring a hands-on, holistic, trauma-informed approach to strategy, implementation, and team development.
Start a conversationIn the community
Work you can see. Impact you can feel.
From outreach and mentorship to neighborhood restoration, change happens when communities move together.
Meet our founder
Experience transformed into purpose.
Tracey G. Kerr, formerly a pastor in Englewood, founded Access Freedom after working closely with people experiencing homelessness and those at highest risk of violence. Having personally known both high-risk youth and homelessness, she understands how the right opportunity can change a life.
Her own transformation through mentorship, financial literacy, and access to opportunity became the blueprint for helping others discover healing, possibility, and freedom.
Featured by the Obama Foundation
Hope amid violence.
The Obama Foundation spent a month documenting Tracey G. Kerr’s frontline work as a violence interrupter, community leader, and advocate in Englewood. The feature captures the experience, relationships, and unwavering hope that continue to inform Access Freedom’s work today.
“We approach this work with the assumption that everyone is loved.”Read the Obama Foundation feature
Photos by Carlos Javier Ortiz, courtesy of the Obama Foundation.
What progress looks like
Measured work. Meaningful outcomes.
We track both the work delivered and the changes it helps produce, using data to learn, improve, and remain accountable to communities and partners.
Conflicts mediated, retaliations prevented, and fewer shootings and homicides over time.
Participants connected to behavioral health, education, employment, housing, and essential services.
Improved attendance, fewer suspensions, stronger decisions, and fewer justice-system contacts.
Partners equipped with sustainable practices, reliable data, and trained teams.
Get involved
Your time can become someone’s turning point.
Become a mentor
Walk alongside a young person with consistency, wisdom, and encouragement. Mentors complete a comprehensive background check.
Apply to mentorVolunteer with us
Join our helpers list and be the first to hear about community projects, neighborhood events, and service opportunities.
Join the teamGive with purpose
Change a life today.
Your support puts books, outreach supplies, mentorship, and safer public spaces directly into communities.
$25Books for a block club
$50A week of street outreach supplies
$100Sponsors a mentee for a month
$250Supports a Rock the Block cleanup
Donate securely
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