Ant­oin Quarles is the founder of Bal­timore’s Help­ing Oppressed People Excel (H.O.P.E.), which was foun­ded to give men and women hope as they nav­ig­ate the many bar­ri­ers to a suc­cess­ful reentry after incar­cer­a­tion. HOPE com­bines ment­or­ship, ser­vice con­nec­tion (job train­ing, trans­port­a­tion, hous­ing sup­port) and insists on cli­ent account­ab­il­ity. Its ulti­mate goal is for members to become advoc­ates for those com­ing after them who need the same kind of assist­ance and support.

Ant­oin recently cel­eb­rated 10 years out of incar­cer­a­tion — the longest time since his first charge at 12 years old. In addi­tion to lead­ing H.O.P.E., Ant­oin works as the sex­ton at Emmanuel Epis­copal Church where H.O.P.E. holds its Tues­day night meet­ings. He has spoken nation­ally on asset map­ping, lead­er­ship, social change, and how to work with return­ing cit­izens in the com­munity. He reg­u­larly advoc­ates for return­ing cit­izens in Anna­pol­is and worked on the Value my Vote Cam­paign (HB0222) by cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing video pub­lic ser­vice announce­ments about vot­ing while await­ing tri­al. Ant­oin is the proud win­ner of Bal­timore Corp’s Elev­a­tion Award in 2017.

Antoin is a big fan of the Avengers, Power Rangers, and Transformers – Optimus Prime is his favorite!