Our Story

As humans, we are wired for connection. In the absence of love and belonging, there is always suffering. We didn’t just learn that from a book, we learned it from an eight-year-old girl.

Our founder met her while volunteering at an afterschool program in college. When the girl’s family was evicted and moved outside the program’s district, she could no longer attend but our founder worked with the family to be able to keep showing up anyway. That relationship became the seed of what The Hive is today.

That same model came home to Carroll County; opening as a youth center working with kids labeled “behavioral” or “at-risk” in 2018. We gave them what the labels didn’t: mentorship, structure, a chance to be seen as more than their file.

But we kept noticing the same pattern. We were helping kids survive high school, the court system, family dysfunction and then they’d age out anyway, because for many, home had never been safe to begin with. We started asking a harder question: were we treating the behavior, or the root cause? We knew the root cause was never the kid. It was trauma, poverty, and family dysfunction passed down with nowhere to go.

In 2023, we rebuilt the organization from the ground up around whole families, not just kids; building our own connection coaching model to help people understand why they show up in the world the way they do.

When our founder started coaching inside a jail setting in 2024, the adults sitting there weren’t so different from the teenagers she’d spent years working with. Same family dysfunction underneath, just carried a decade or two further. I wish their parents would show up for them, she remembers thinking at the youth center. Then, sitting across from those same parents in coaching: I wish your parents had shown up for you. Of course it’s hard to offer safe, secure connection when you never had it yourself.

For over a decade, in every form this work has taken, it has come down to the same thing: relationship. We’ve served more than 3,500 people, not because we found a program that works, but because we found something simpler. People who’ve experienced disconnection don’t need more systems., they need connection.

What Makes Us Different

We meet people where they are - literally and figuratively. We go into the community where our members live, removing the barriers of a traditional office setting.

Lived experience guides everything we do. We intentionally hire and train community members to become peer leaders & mentors, so our approach is built by people who understand the journey firsthand.

We eliminate artificial timelines and hierarchies. There's no graduation date or exit requirement- members stay as long as they want, often forever.

Connection coaching sets us apart. While others focus on external resource connection, we provide deep relational coaching that helps people develop authentic connections to themselves and others and strengthen internal resources.

We address the whole picture together. We treat incarceration, addiction, and trauma as interconnected - not separate issues requiring separate services.

Belonging drives everything else. Our members consistently report feeling "seen and heard" as their primary outcome - the foundation that makes all other positive changes possible.

We believe in families. Even when custody has been lost or relationships severed, we help individuals repair and maintain meaningful connections with their children, rooted in hope rather than shame.

Our Team.

The Hive is a small team by design because connection scales through relationships. We're supported by a dedicated group of volunteers and peers who show up alongside us to make this work possible. See how you can get involved >