A Winding Path Leads to Career Paving the Way for Youth Success

Cathy Pitchford, Chief Program Officer at Baltimore's Promise, tried her hand at a lot of jobs before finding the career path that was right for her.

She cut lunch meat in a deli, cleaned houses, served fast food at KFC, stacked boxes in a warehouse, and worked for the Census Bureau. She studied nursing and even worked for years at a law firm. Then, one online career search changed everything.

Cathy began working at a nonprofit organization that empowers individuals and families in Baltimore with the skills they need for long-term personal and economic success. It made one thing very clear: “I want to help people.”

“And I loved it,” she said. “I was working with people, and this is what I wanted to do. I just knew from so many experiences that I wanted to work with the community.”

Now, Cathy's own winding search for a career forms the basis of her longstanding commitment to workforce development, helping guide youth and inform change at the systems level.

“When I was their age, I was fumbling around,” she said. “I stay in this work because I know people need support — genuine support.”

Finding the path

Cathy grew up in West Baltimore and dropped out of high school in 11th grade due to environmental issues and barriers.

“Growing up, I made some wrong choices and hung out with the wrong people,” she said. “I became a single mom with two kids, and thought, ‘I’ve got to do something different.’ So, I went to the library, I got a GED book, studied…and passed the test the first time.”

The GED led to a winding series of jobs and a start-and-stop experience with college.

It wasn’t until Cathy’s children were teenagers that she found her passion — helping other people build their lives. She waited until her own children graduated from high school before deciding, “OK, this is probably where I need to focus on me and do what I’m teaching everybody else.”

At times, that felt easier said than done. Cathy went back to school while working full-time, and “I was the first college student out of my mom’s five kids, so nobody could tell me a pathway. I had to figure it out.”

Ultimately, Cathy earned a master’s in social work from the University of Maryland: “Yes, I was exhausted, but I kept telling myself, it’s only for a period of time, and I had already wasted so many years,” she said.

Putting experience to work

Today, Cathy helps Baltimore’s Promise carve out the opportunities young people in Baltimore need to find their own paths, including through programs such as Grads2Careers, which offers free occupational skills training in a wide variety of fields for Baltimore City Public Schools graduates who are not enrolled in college full-time.

“I stay in this field now with youth because you can start from high school and give people some hope, and a pathway they can take, even if they change their mind,” she said. “You can make it accessible and easy.”

Cathy understands both the macro-level systems and the individual decisions that can shape young people’s lives, and she’s a strong advocate for the wraparound supports – from mental health screenings to childcare – that people need to be successful.

“You know, what draws me to it is that I feel like I was one of those kids,” she said. “Maybe if I had these supports when I was in school, my decisions would have been different.”