Every Stable/Able Man Must Mentor!
As I shared last month, I am a proud mentor in a program that serves incarcerated youth at the Charles Hickey School in Baltimore County. I’ve joined with four other strong brothers and we go to Hickey every Saturday for a strong 90 minute session - half youth develoment / half recreation.
The 15 (or so) young men that we mentor range between the ages of 15 and 18. Their charges are as petty as not completing community service as a stipulation of probation and as serious as selling narcotics and grand theft auto.
Because Hickey is a short term facility (supposed to be anyway), we only have about 5 weeks to positively impact the lives of these young men before they are moved out to a placement, another facility, or released back into the community.
We’ve been going strong now for two months and have learned much about the young men and ourselves. God has really blessed the mentors with great chemistry and comraderie. We all are 30 or younger, college educated, community-involved, married men - some with children. And all of us have a personal relationship with God that we do not hide from our mentees or staff. Prayer is a central part of our sessions and we stress to the young brothers that if they don’t have a spiritual connection with Almighty God that they will continue trafficking in the same hazardous circles that got them in Hickey in the first place.
Many of the brothers have expressed to us their appreciation of our volunteering in this way. One of the mentees that I’ve taken a strong liking to - Marcus - told me a few weeks back that his older brothers are incarcerated and that if he had older brothers like me and the other mentors he would have never ended up locked up.
Marcus and many other young men in our group have court dates coming up in January and we are praying for a favorable disposition. The mentors are writing letters of support for the young men and I’m personally going before the judge with Marcus to encourage his release. As a component of our program, we seek to provide re-entry services (employment, schooling, stable housing, etc.) as well once our little brothers are released.
Please pray for this ministry. There is a possibility for us to receive financial support very soon that would allow us to continue mentoring at a level that is greater than what we are able to do for 90 minutes on a Saturday.
Also, know that January is National Mentoring Month. Consider becoming a mentor to a young person that could benefit from the guidance of a caring adult.
To Black men especially - we MUST step up for Black boys - at whatever age, stage, or situation in which they find themselves. We can no longer allow anyone to rail on the depressing condition of Black boys without communicating how they are committed to support them. I’m almost to the point now where if you’re not doing something in a hands-on way to support youth, then I don’t want to hear your criticisms of them. As a matter of fact, just SHUT UP! Step up or Shut up.
Yea I know some of these children/youth have parents that didn’t do their job, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Yea I know that some of these children/youth are not being served by their church, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Yea I know that the school systems in Black neighborhoods by and large are not preparing our children/youth for gainful employment, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Sure - state governments make plans to build prisons based on the reading levels of Black youth in 4th grade, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
Yes - the White Power Structure is real and has stacked the deck against Black youth, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
[INSERT YOUR FAVORITE EXCUSE FOR INACTION HERE], BUT WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
As a good brother told me a couple of weeks ago, mentoring has moved from “nice to necessity” and it’s time that we act with the same sense of urgency that author, Jawanza Kunjufu writes about in State of Emergency: We Must Save African American Males. Mentoring is not a panacea, but it is a foundational component of reclaiming the destiny of Black youth in America.
To find a mentoring opportunity near you, visit MENTOR/The National Mentoring Partnership. If you are already a mentor, share your experiences here in hopes that you will inspire someone else to get involved.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:54 am
Great work!!
It reminds me of days in my boyhood town where I grew up- there I volunteered, and got a few of my friends to join in and serve as mentors for first time adjudicated youngsters. Great job!
I have also presided for years over a Federation of community organizations that served our youth, as well attended a conference (as a delegate) with the United Neighborhood Centers of America in Washington DC, years ago, one of my many stops in the District. The latter provided me with an opportunity, along with others who served of course, to give voice, to members of Congress, the plight of our urban neighborhoods and our urban youth.
One of the real challenges that our young people are facing and will apparently continue to face into perpetuity is the economic challenge. We have to solve that problem or what’s left for the kids, drug dealing and theft? When you think about it, how many of them will actually become professional athletes (consider Maurice Clarett formerly of the OSU Buckeyes-where is he now), or Rappers? We all know that the ratio and the likelihood of that ever happening are very slim?
In Northern California our youth are challenged in urban centers like Oaktown, East Palo Alto, Richmond, Marin City and other jurisdictions where our kids are concentrated . And having said that, I sensed a totally different flavor of nihilism when I drove through the ‘concrete jungled without lawns or yards to play in’ urban areas in B’more, not to mention Dodge City, just up the road. I sensed a spirit of nihilism and defeatism as I drove and walked through some of the neighborhoods back there.
As my former colleagues and I discussed at Stanford some years ago, folks, it is up to us to solve these problems - the government cannot or will not solve any of the problems that you or I have mentioned for our kids; and the church – well, the church is the church, however some churches are getting involved. The Bridgeway Church, under the direction of Dr. Anderson, in Columbia Maryland that I have visited with while staying in that area, seemed to be quite proactive.
I asked a young man in a counseling sessiononce, why do you steal? His answer, similar to Sutton’s answer was: I want clothing, a house, a wife and a car just like anyone else does!
Author Earl Ofari Hutcherson seems to have an excellent grasp on what has befallen our youth and what we need to do about it! Having said that, the adults are going to have to decide whether or not its time to give up the ‘bling bling’ themselves, stop outsourcing the responsibility for our kids to other individuals and institutions and invest in job creation programs for our kids.
Just as it was stated in Jeremiah Chapter 1: As far as our communities are concenred, there need’s to be some rooting, plucking, pulling down and destroying – then we need to build [among other things our praxis], then we can begin to build all over again.
And we ought to, as it is written in scripture, to along with our wisdom, get an understanding!
Hats off to you sir!
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Thanks brother Heber. Every man must take care of his own children first. After we have secured our home it is critical that we mentor Black males.
We will not be able to address the violence and other issues which impact our boys unless we get involved. The marches, protests and endless dialogue about “white people” will not correct the spiraling decline of Black male development. The speed in which a young Black male goes from middle school to prison is alarming.
At some point Black men must look in the mirror!