In 2008, Shon Hart found himself making a tough decision. He had to face his trauma, shift career goals, and work with the people who reminded him of the man who killed his brother.
“I had no choice,” said Hart, 46. “I had to take care of my family.” Hart closed his business and went to work in the prison system. What seemed like an unforgiving situation turned out to be what Hart needed to find his purpose.
“I realized when I got there that it wasn’t about me,” Hart said. “I was sent there to serve and discover who I was. Now it was time to start a new career…I thought I was going to convert everyone to Christianity. But I realized that that’s not why God sent me there. He sent me there to be a servant.”
Creating a safe space
While working in the prison system Hart noticed one thing from group sessions with inmates — Most of them had issues with their fathers.
He also realized that he had unresolved issues with his father too.
“There was an inmate named David Kaiser, who challenged me to deal with my unresolved issues with my father,” Hart said. “I thought I was going to help him, and he was key to me starting this whole thing.”
With Kaiser’s help, Hart developed a curriculum that would serve as the foundation for his program Man2Man University to help incarcerated fathers become better parents. Hart would work with more than 700 fathers while working in the prison system.
In 2015, he took it a step further and launched Involved Dad, a nonprofit focused on helping men become better parents, and he decided to take his program beyond the prison walls to the Flint, Mich. community.
Hart expanded his curriculum to also include areas like finance, relationships, and economic empowerment with a goal of helping men better engage with not just their children but people in general.
“We help them try to restore their relationships with their children, help them to try to better facilitate between them, and their ex-wives or girlfriends so they can have an amicable relationship for the betterment of the child,” Hart said. “So, when we can help the fathers, we know that the children have a better chance of becoming successful in life.”
Through his own growth and self-evaluation, Hart developed a sense of appreciation for honesty and transparency that he credits as one of the successes of Involved Dad.
Hart said he knew one of the challenges was men needing a safe space to be vulnerable and honest about their experiences without being judged. He worked to gain their trust by first being honest about his relationship with his father and being an imperfect husband and parent.
“I found power and freedom in transparency,” Hart said. “I saw so many people living jacked up and unproductive lives because they’ve been lying. If I can be the example in dealing with issues and being transparent let me be the poster child for that.”
Finding balance
In 2017, he left his job to pursue speaking and to focus on Involved Dad full time.
Initially, Hart poured himself into work. He would find himself unable to enjoy holidays with his family because he was chasing clients instead of focusing on his wife and children. He soon realized that he had to make them part of what he was doing and also carve out time to focus on the people who loved him.
“I stopped chasing money,” Hart said. “When I was chasing money that’s when my family was being neglected.” Hart has been married to his wife Leah Hart for 20 years. The couple has two teenage daughters ages 18 and 14, and a 10-year-old son who are all involved in a number of activities.
Hart is no stranger to coaching sports, showing up for dance recitals, date nights, family vacations, and making sure he is present for other important events.
“When I’m with my family, I’m with my family. The time that I spend with them I make sure I’m present,” Hart said. “I used to be present in body but not in spirit… I never wanted to be a public success and a private failure.”
Hart also gives credit to Leah Hart for his success.
“My wife is behind a lot of the work,” Hart said. “She’s the one writing grants and making sure I’m in check. I also have my children involved they get paid to work for the business.”
In addition to Involved Dad, Hart is an author and does public and motivational speaking which has given him a national platform.
Despite his strides, Hart says there is still work to do.
“Broken boys become broken men”
One of Hart’s biggest challenges is finding support for programming. Hart said because of societal beliefs and stereotypes, men are often left out of the conversation when needing help.
“Agencies like mine don’t really receive a lot of financial support because you are talking about grown men,” Hart said. “Broken boys become broken men. People need to understand that if I impact these men their children will be impacted. We need to help these men to help these children.”