Car-repair 'school' reborn

Frank Hill had trouble finding a job in a tight economy and with a prison record.

Last year he met Dave Moore, the founder of Southside Rides, at a job fair, and decided to enroll in Moore's program to learn auto-body repair.

Southside Rides is a nonprofit organization that teaches young men and women how to repair and custom-paint cars.

Hill graduated from the program in June, but he has stayed on to work for Moore. He said he likes the work, and he likes being surrounded by people who want to work hard and support each other.

"This is the place to come if you want to change your life," he said.

Southside Rides reopened recently at a building on Hope Street, on the city's south side. The program has been reorganized and has a new board of directors. There are currently 10 men in the 18-week program, and about 80 men on a waiting list.

The new site is symbolic, several people connected to the organization said, of a new start for a program that has potential, but has been plagued with problems.

Moore, who participants characterize as the heart and soul of the program, is still at the helm.

It hasn't been an easy journey, Moore said.

Moore opened Southside Rides in 2005. He had gotten out of prison the year before for drug dealing and he wanted to return to the work that he loved. Young people, mostly men, get into the program through referrals from friends, the court system and Forsyth Technical Community College.

Moore started the program at a garage and then moved it to a cinderblock building near the UNC School of the Arts.

In 2007, the program ran afoul of zoning, building and environmental regulations. There were problems with the ventilation inside the building, electrical connections, storage of hazardous materials and safety equipment. Estimates of what it would cost to fix the building ran as high as $45,000. The program nearly shut down for a while and Moore feared that he would have to close.

The program's survival has been the result of an unusual patchwork of community-minded people who thought that Moore's program was too good to lose.

Scott Gerding, a local businessman, met Moore casually several years ago. He was impressed with Moore, he said, and they talked informally off and on for about a year about Moore's program.

"I thought, you know, maybe I'm supposed to help this guy," Gerding said. "I believed so much in what he was doing."

He liked the fact that Moore's effort was local, and that it reached a group that traditional programs often fail to help.

Gerding participates in the New Canaan Society, a group of Christian businessmen who are mostly white, and he began talking about Southside Rides to some of the men in the group.

"This guy is addressing a group that we couldn't ever touch," Gerding said. "You couldn't have a bunch of white business guys go to these neighborhoods. We would be fumbling around and they wouldn't know how to react to us."

About five men in Gerding's group decided to act as advisers to Moore.

The group has raised about $11,000 in private donations to help settle old debts and move the business into its new building. It plans to do another fundraiser soon to help pay for some equipment.

Moore was used to flying by the seat of his pants, Gerding said, and he had no experience in handling the business side of his nonprofit organization.

"It's been a tangled ball of string," Gerding said. "We told him he had to do it by the book. There are no shortcuts."

Members of the group set up an accounting system and met with city officials to comply with the many zoning, building and environmental regulations a business such as Moore's requires.

"The structure is there for David so that he can do what he's best at, which is teaching and mentoring," Gerding said.

Larry Weston, the chairman of Southside Rides' board, said that the board has worked to put a framework in place that would lead to the program's long-term success. Weston is also a project manager with the S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation.

The board has helped Moore apply for grants and has gotten one for $5,000 from DataMax Foundation, Weston said.

Board members are also helping Moore keep records of students in the program.

"There's a lot of anecdotal stuff about the program's success, but we need data," he said. "We need to keep track to make sure we're effective."

Such information also helps when the organization is applying for grants, Weston said.

"We need to be able to sustain this thing over time," he said. "We don't need to always be running around trying to keep the doors open."

Moore said that all of the help he has received has been a blessing.

"I've had a lot of people step up and say, ‘Dave, I'm going to help,' and they'd just fall by the wayside," he said.

His relationships with Weston, the current board and Gerding's group have been different.

"I feel a lot better than where I was. I knew I couldn't do everything myself," Moore said. "I knew I could attract the young men and I knew I could deal with them. I was always looking for partners to give me structure."

■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.