(NewsNation) — After 22 years behind bars, Baltimore resident Abdullah Coleman left prison with a gun offense on his record, and he knew there would be obstacles to getting a job.

But he had been planning for this day for years. While in prison he saw a flyer for the Maryland-based nonprofit Vehicles for Change, a nonprofit that teaches ex-prisoners how to work on cars, gives them a car and helps them secure a job in the automotive field.

“I said man, this is the program that I need,” Coleman said.

He worked to get into the Maryland prison program’s automotive shop, which teaches automotive skills to inmates. He was able to get a recommendation to participate in Vehicles for Change after getting out of prison in 2022.

After his recent graduation from Vehicles for Change’s training program, he was able to get his license to work on cars and a job at an auto repair shop in Baltimore.

Coleman credits his success in leaving prison and securing employment to Vehicles for Change.

“I recognize the blessing that I had…dealing with Vehicles for Change. I’m very appreciative of them,” he said.

Vehicles for Change was founded in 1999 to help disadvantaged families get access to automotive transportation. It’s estimated that around three-quarters of Americans take their own car to commute to work; having access to a car is often essential to earn an income.

“(We) initially launched the program to address the issue that families living in poverty have in gaining and maintaining employment. And the number one barrier for years has been shown to be transportation,” Martin Schwartz, Vehicles for Change’s president said.

The nonprofit takes in used cars and gets them to disadvantaged families. Vehicles for Change first reviews potential recipients of the cars, making sure that they need the vehicle in order to get to work. Then they sell the recipients the car for a low price.

“We sell it for around $950. They get a 12-month loan so they establish credit while they’re paying for their car,” Schwartz said.

Eventually, the nonprofit realized that it didn’t have enough technicians on hand to repair all the cars that it was supplying. But they found out that the Maryland prison system had an automotive training program.

Vehicles for Change aimed to fill those gaps, getting working cars to those who need them, while offering the training and experience the former inmates could use to clear those barriers to employment.

They graduated their first class of auto technicians in 2016, and Schwartz described encouraging feedback from employers who hired them.

“They were coming back and asking, can you train more? We want to hire more of your guys, how do we get access to more?” he said.

They now have three training locations throughout the state of Maryland. In all, they’ve graduated between 200 and 250 individuals, with an 85% completion rate and a 95% placement rate.

Schwartz also pointed out that the annual recidivism rate for their program is around 3%, which is considerably lower than the general recidivism rate. (Although Vehicles for Change’s participants probably don’t represent the general inmate population because they go through a unique application process.)

He acknowledged that a persistent challenge is securing funding for the program, but the organization is looking to tap into virtual reality to reduce the cost of training ex-inmates. He argued that while Vehicles for Change focuses on auto repair, it could run similar programs in any number of fields.

“You could do this in construction or carpentry. Or you could do it in welding — any type of program like that, you could run a training program similar to this,” he said.

As for Coleman, he is gratified at the change he has seen in his life.

“From the age of nine ’till I went to prison all I wanted to be was a gangster,” he said.

But since leaving prison and going through Vehicles for Change, he got married and just recently had a baby. He wants to be a role model for others and help convince society that people can change.

“I can’t come out here and feed into that narrative that once you a part of the streets, you always a part of the streets. I’ve got to try to set a good example,” he said.