NEW ORLEANS — Growing up in a home without a father is known to contribute to depression in young men.
It puts youths at high risk of dropping out of high school, becoming a runaway, and going to prison.
But a local group in New Orleans is reversing those outcomes and shaping successful young men every day.
Bryce Bridges just graduated from Abramson and is headed to Bluffton University on three scholarships to study exercise science and nutrition. And what helped lead him to all this success is Son of a Saint.
When asked if it changed the course of his life, Bridges replied “I would. New experiences, and scholarships, so, job shadows. I've done job shadows with the New Orleans Saints, and Tulane Green Wave," he said.
Bryce has been a mentee in the Son of a Saint program since he was 12 years old. It pairs boys without a father in their lives, and facing the tough decade coming of age, with a male mentor.
“Son of a Saint, they back you to be like whatever you want. They're always going to be there for you, but you really have to take the initiative,” said Bridges.
Teens like Bryce get to spend time and learn positive life skills from men like Jeromy Porter.
“I think the kids just kind of have a yearning for understanding what they should be doing, said Jeremy Porter, 33, a petroleum engineer who has been a Son of a Saint mentor for three years now. "Through the past, they kind of lost sight of that, you know, going through the pandemic,” he said.
Jeremy is a volunteer and was named the mentor of the year.
“I saw an interest in the kids seeing what their future could look like," Porter said. "Seeing what it looks like to be a certain age, or what their career can go to, what their lives can be, and that's something I wanted to be a part of ”.
“They did not choose the hand that they were dealt, but we want to make sure they play it to the best of their ability, or they overcome it,” said Elliot Hutchinson, Creative Director at Son of a Saint.
Hutchinson says he watches the teens become young men.
They learn they are valued, and see a variety of career choices they never knew about. They see new paths open to their futures. There's also individual and group mental health counseling.
Ochsner therapists and case workers are assigned to Son of a Saint full-time to help mentees through stress, trauma, loneliness, and losses they have lived.
“One big thing that I noticed from the beginning is trust. Come in here with some walls up," explained Emily Prevot Jones, an Ochsner mental health specialist assigned full-time to Son of a Saint. "Very quickly, we watch mentees come in and just thrive. Yeah, because they've lost things and they come in and they gain so much,”.
Since 2011, Son of a Saint has helped 350 mentees, and the more donations, and volunteers they get, the more teens they can help.
“If you really do love this city, this is about the future. They are the future of what we will see when it comes to business, economy, politics, culture, heritage,” said Hutchinson.
And while the values Bryce learned from his mentors will sustain him through life, so will the words of his grandmother, Ruby Bridges, who at six years old, was the first to desegregate her elementary school.
“One of the things that she taught me was really perseverance, and then also just to treat everyone fairly, because that's what she wanted, but perseverance because you know you're going to go through trials and tribulations, but through it all, you just have to stick it through and finish,” said Bridges.
Son of a Saint is looking for more men to be mentors, but anyone can volunteer to help the organization or donate.
We have a link here: https://www.sonofasaint.org/
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