Improving the odds for severely at-risk children to achieve success in school and in their adult lives constantly challenges educators and social workers alike. In this article, the author describes how a partnership between the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development in Cincinnati, Ohio is helping young students see the possibility of a successful future through career and technical education. Using a series of career camps, Great Oaks and Friends of the Children reinforce and extend the ongoing work of paid, professional mentors who start working with the children in first grade and continue on through high school. The camps combine introductions to career paths with hands-on activities. The children develop basic, everyday skills and create products--a clock, a step stool, a basket of plants--to take home. These results support the goals of the Friends program, which aims to have severely at-risk children graduate from high school with a plan for the future, avoid involvement in the criminal justice system, and avoid teenage parenthood. Cincinnati's Friends is a project of Family Service, a private, regional social service agency.