Tell us how a mentor changed your life
In this installment of the Tribune’s Chicago Forward project, we look at the power one person with positive influence can have on a young life. And we want to hear your story about an extraordinary mentor who steered you toward a new path.
The three young men were neatly dressed, polite and eager to talk about their lives. At 18, 20 and 21, their dreams sounded familiar: become a business owner, travel the world, settle in a nice house in the suburbs and have a family. They talked about mentors and people who had guided them in their lives. Maybe you can relate.
Trouble is, these young men were sitting in a stark cinder-block room in Division 6 of the Cook County Jail, wearing tan uniforms emblazoned with “DOC” (Department of Corrections) on their backs. Each faced felony charges — aggravated battery of a police officer, possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon — and when we asked about mentors in their lives, they struggled to think of anyone.
“I don’t really have one,” said Ronald Sanders, a slender 20-year-old from Bronzeville being held on weapons charges since July, unable to post bail. “I believe I have to go on this journey myself.”
Breaking from violent pasts
Sanders and the two other men we met are now part of an innovative program in the jail. It teaches select inmates that, in fact, they don’t have to go it alone. The Sheriff ’s Anti-Violence Effort, or SAVE, targets male inmates between 18 and 25 whose cases suggest some potential to break from their violent pasts. At any given time, about 40 men, all from the most violent neighborhoods in Chicago, volunteer to participate in the program. They learn life skills, anger management and other personal development lessons. It’s not a diversion program, and they get no special breaks in court for participating.
But they meet with individual case managers and partner agencies that work with them in the jail and, if the inmates are willing, after they get out of jail. For the SAVE participants, it’s often the closest thing to mentoring they’ve ever had.
The novelty of life goals
The program has enrolled more than 800 participants since it started in 2016. It’s hard to measure success, but program managers say one indicator is how many return to jail once they’ve been released. Early numbers show that the re-booking rate is 6% for those who were in SAVE for at least two weeks, compared with 9% for a comparable group that wasn’t in SAVE.
Sanders told us the program has been eye-opening. “Before I got into it I was just living for the day. I didn’t really have good goals. The SAVE program taught me to handle myself better to really grow up, to start setting goals and achieving those goals.”
They all told us they’d keep up with their case managers when they’re out of jail, though they also told us that a return to the gangs and the streets would be tough to resist.
“As soon as you out, they start coming around,” Leontay Hill, 18, said about the pull of the gangs. Hill graduated from high school, was in his first year of community college and had a job at FedEx when he was arrested in early October for aggravated battery of a police officer. But a counselor from his school has been keeping in touch with his mom while he’s in jail, and he has an uncle with a house and family in Indiana, where he’d like to live.
Shape a young life
Many of us, with professional jobs and invitations to more career development opportunities than we can exploit, take the idea of mentoring for granted. But meeting the men in SAVE reminded us of the immense power even one person with positive influence can have on a young life. To share life skills, to guide. To mentor.
In January, the Tribune Editorial Board will launch a new and substantial “Chicago Forward” campaign: “Young lives in the balance: How to reach Chicagoland’s disconnected youth.” Our goal is to engage you and our community in an effort to lower the staggering number of 16- to 24-year-olds who fall through the cracks, who drop out of school, work and society.
We’ll ask for the big ideas in January, but we hope you and your employers, your organizations, your community groups are already beginning to think, talk and plot how to make this urgent mission succeed.
For now, though, help us spark the big thinking by sending us your answer to this specific question:
Your story
We want to hear your story about the extraordinary mentor who steered you toward a new path and changed your life. Maybe it’s a teacher, a relative, a boss or a friend, so long as their influence was significant. Tell us about that moment of influence and change in 400 words or fewer. We will publish a selection of responses in December. Email your story to: letters@chicagotribune.com with “MENTOR” in the subject line.
Ronald Sanders, the young jail inmate with big dreams, was partially right when he said he had to “go on this journey myself.” We’re encouraged by his spirit of personal responsibility, and we hope he lands on a good path. But we also hope he’ll find a mentor along the way.