How mentoring a kid can impact a community

When Alfred Washington isn’t spending time with his five kids, his wife, or running his own local security company in the city — he volunteers mentoring youth throughout Memphis.

This is Washington’s first year as the chairman for the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mid-South after spending two years on the board.

When people get involved in mentoring, they usually start with kids at younger ages, Washington pointed out.

There are challenges when it comes to mentoring teenagers — particularly in the case of Justin, a 15-year-old, 10thgrade Bartlett High School student living in a single-parent home.

Washington said he’s attended some of Justin’s football games and although it is still somewhat early, he is helping Justin decide on a college to attend.

He said he emphasizes that some people have to work “twice as hard” to get to where they want to be in life compared to others. Washington said that Justin’s father died when he was 3 years old.

Though Washington cannot take the place of a bloodline member of Justin’s family, Washington believes his mentoring can still have a large impact on the scope of his life.

“I can’t replace that, but as a mentor, as an African-American man, you have to put positive influence into these young guys,” said Washington.

“You have to make the relationship. I set the tone up front,” Washington said. “I’m not coming here to be a father, and I’m not telling you how to do things and what to do, but I am telling you to look at things at a different perspective.”

Typically, mentors in the program are only required to spend time with their “littles” once a month, but 4 hours a month during the process of mentoring is not enough, according to Washington.

Washington said others should feel “obligated” to become mentors for younger kids.

In Memphis, 63 percent of the population is black with about 25 percent of the people in the city being below the poverty line. Within that demographic, 39 percent of kids under the age of 18 are considered to be living in poverty.

To Washington, mentoring can have a big impact on the community the kid is from. Washington said he grew up in poverty while in Hyde Park, a predominantly black neighborhood in North Memphis.

Circumstances of everyday life can have an impact on young kids early on. Washington cited examples of gangs and crime in the city as one way kids either directly or indirectly find themselves involved in problems in the city.

Violent crime numbers have dropped in Memphis since the summer of this year. Though in September, there were 879 violent crimes reported to the Memphis Police Department according to city data — which is higher than violent crimes during same month in 2016 and 2017.

Washington said with guidance, mentoring can be a building block in adjusting the lives of younger kids coming up in Memphis for the better.