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Tuesday, 15 September 2026
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Written by Katie Herring
When a child feels confident in their appearance, it reshapes how they engage with the world. Good self-esteem builds courage, fosters healthier relationships, and drives academic persistence. Yet, for many families navigating financial hardship, non-essential personal care—such as regular haircuts—often falls by the wayside.
What began as a simple realization about confidence and dignity has evolved into one of the nation's most comprehensive youth-support initiatives: Kutz for Kids.
The story of Kutz for Kids starts with the Marcus Harris Foundation, founded in 2018. After spending years volunteering across a spectrum of non-profit organizations, founder Marcus Harris recognized a profound gap in existing community services. While traditional charities offered essential aid, he realized there was much more he could do to address systemic barriers to opportunity and work to break cycles of intergenerational poverty.
This drive led to a suite of targeted community programs under the foundation's umbrella:
• Neighborfood Express: A direct response to local food insecurity, providing nutritious food to underserved families.
• Project ClassAct: An initiative dedicated to supporting teachers in Title I schools, helping them secure essential classroom resources such as iPads and other educational technology.
• Bridging the Digital Divide: Partnering with organizations like Charlotte-based E2D (Eliminating the Digital Divide) and Cramerton Institute to distribute free technology to students in need.
• Robert B. Harris Memorial Scholarship Program: Rewarding young scholar-activists committed to fostering positive social change.
• Christmas Smiles Drive: Providing gifts and holiday cheer to children fleeing abusive homes.
Sustaining these multifaceted efforts requires deep community roots. The foundation operates primarily through a combination of grants, strategic business partnerships, and individual donations.
In the late summer of 2019, amidst widespread news coverage highlighting back-to-school drives offering free school supplies and seasonal haircuts, Harris asked a critical question: What if, instead of a one-time back-to-school event, children had access to free haircuts all year round?
That spark launched Kutz for Kids, which quickly became the foundation’s flagship program. Backed by vital grant funding, including support from organizations like the Florence Rogers Charitable Trust, the program expanded rapidly.
Rather than operating in isolation, Kutz for Kids partners with licensed barbers and local community organizations to meet families where they were, delivering a consistent sense of dignity and care.
What makes Kutz for Kids unique isn't just the grooming; it's the holistic framework built around it. Instead of stopping at a haircut, Kutz for Kids uses each session as a touchpoint to evaluate a student's broader range of needs. The program connects kids and their families directly to necessary social services, offering case management, mental health resources, tutoring, and career mentorship.
Since the program’s beginning, areas in which they serve have seen significant decreases in juvenile justice system involvement and increases in academic performance as well as civic engagement. The program is not just about helping kids look good; it’s about taking care of as many essential needs as possible to set them up for success.
Kutz for Kids operates in communities all over the country and now has expanded its reach into North Carolina, specifically in the Fayetteville and Cumberland County area.
These wraparound services operate through robust referral pipelines and agency relationships, including partnerships with local agencies such as the Department of Social Services and Cumberland County Social Services.
They also work directly with school social workers, counselors, and educators who identify at-risk youth. In some cases, they connect through direct outreach, allowing families to contact the foundation directly to get connected to appropriate support services without red tape.
By pairing immediate personal dignity with long-term social support, Kutz for Kids turns a simple haircut into a gateway for life-changing intervention. By addressing food security, digital access, classroom resources, and social health simultaneously, the Marcus Harris Foundation ensures that underserved youth receive the comprehensive foundation they need to thrive.
For more information, visit https://marcusharrisfoundation.org/kutz-for-kids
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Tuesday, 15 September 2026
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Written by Jamie Bishop
More than 23 years ago, Amyn Abduk-Khaliq arrived at Myrover-Reese Recovery Homes as a homeless veteran searching for a fresh start.
He found more than shelter. With structure, guidance and people willing to stand beside him, Abduk-Khaliq built a life in recovery. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, served Fayetteville State University for 15 years and retired in 2024. He continued working in the community and in recovery programs. In August, he was elected to the Myrover-Reese board of directors.
His return from resident to caretaker of the mission is the kind of homecoming that cannot be captured by an occupancy number.
Myrover-Reese will celebrate its 65th anniversary and National Recovery Month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at 560 Wilkes Road in Fayetteville. The free, drop-in gathering will include a live band, food trucks, games, a bounce house and opportunities to explore the grounds.
“Everybody is invited to come out,” said Melissa Reid, the organization’s resource development coordinator. “We just want people to come and look at the campus.”
Visitors can see a side of Myrover-Reese that is easy to miss from the road: wooded acreage, a nature trail, a greenhouse and places designed to make reflection and healthy routines part of daily living. Residents’ rooms and identities will remain private. Recovery requires community, but it also deserves dignity.
“It’s a very serene, beautiful campus,” Reid said.
The peaceful setting serves a serious mission: to provide a safe, supportive and structured environment for people seeking recovery from alcohol and other drugs. The organization operates residential programs for men and women and has the capacity to house 42 people. Its services include 24-hour supervision, substance-use and relapse-prevention education, connections to outpatient treatment, peer-support meetings and help preparing for employment, education, and independent housing.
The work began in 1961, when North Carolina communities had few formal options for people leaving treatment and trying to rebuild their lives. Jimmy Myrover and Pat Reese, two local men in recovery, joined members of Alcoholics Anonymous in establishing what the organization describes as the state’s first halfway house for recovering alcoholics.
“We had no money, just a lot of love and faith,” Reese once said, according to the organization’s history.
Fayetteville answered with food and donations during the home’s fragile first years. The organization took the Myrover-Reese name in 1971 to honor its founders. What began in one house grew into a network rooted in local families, volunteers, and donors. The names carried by its homes reflect those enduring community ties.
“Sixty-five years here in this community is a testimonial to the work that they do,” Reid said.
Today, two men’s homes on the Wilkes Road campus serve veterans and civilians. A women’s program operates in the historic Fellowship Home in the Massey Hill neighborhood. A new women’s residence is being built on the main campus, with completion anticipated by the end of the year, Reid said.
The move will place women closer to shared services and the larger recovery community while creating room to rethink how the existing house can support the next stage of independent living. A grant from the Women’s Giving Circle will help furnish the new home’s kitchen and interior spaces.
Myrover-Reese also works closely with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans can receive case management and referrals for medical and dental care, education, employment, legal needs and housing. Those practical connections matter because sobriety is not sustained by determination alone. A safe address, a job, health care, and trustworthy people can become the scaffolding around a new life.
The greenhouse and Veggies for Vets effort add another layer to that support. Developed with Off-Road Outreach, the project is intended to bring fresh produce, purposeful work, and service together. The anniversary gathering will give guests a closer look at the greenhouse and the campus nature trail.
Community support also comes through the Myrover-Reese Thrift Store at 1336 Clinton Road. Reid said store revenue helps sustain the recovery programs. Shoppers can find furniture, clothing, household goods, books, and other donated merchandise. People can help by shopping, volunteering or donating usable items; the store also offers donation pickup.
The organization welcomes financial gifts and frequently needs toiletries, twin bedding, cleaning supplies, paper products and nonperishable food. Volunteers can also share practical skills, including reading, writing and basic computer instruction.
Those contributions keep open a door that has stood for 65 years. Behind it are people doing the slow, courageous work of rebuilding trust, routines, and hope.
Abduk-Khaliq once walked through that door needing help. Now he has returned to help guide it. His journey gives the anniversary its clearest meaning: Recovery is not the end of a person’s story. Given time, support, and a place to begin again, it can become the chapter from which everything else is written.
For more information, to seek services or to support Myrover-Reese Recovery Homes, visit mrrh.org or call 910-779-1306.
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