NEW ORLEANS — Too often we have reports of juvenile crime, but this time we have a different angle on that topic.
We talked to two men who turned their lives around, and got their take on what the current system needs to do to help teens now in criminal trouble.
They say they grew up around drug deals, and addiction, needles, and guns.
Yet today they say it's interesting that now their children are middle-class, suburban kids, with better lives than they had.
And what changed their paths could change generations to come.
Mack Terrance and Kevin Griffin-Clark are both in their 30s, successful entrepreneurs, business owners, and loving fathers.
And there's more in common. They call themselves "project babies." Mack is from the Magnolia Development and Kevin from the St. Bernard Development, with the same family dynamics.
“Me not having my dad, used to make me angry, and I never knew why, but it made me a better athlete, because I used to take it out of other people, but it made me a bad person on how I used to treat people sometimes,” said Mack Terrance, Sr., owner of Motivation Team Athletic Academy.
“My father was not in our home. His addiction kind of took over,” said Kevin Griffin-Clark, business owner and investor.
And when they were young, both were incarcerated for five years. So, what can the juvenile system learn from Mack and Kevin’s complete recovery and exemplary success? For Mack, it was the prison programs.
“While being incarcerated, I discovered a lot about myself. There's trade schools, there's different self-help programs, there's anger management, parenting, Boys to Men, Toastmasters, where you can learn how to speak in public. There's things to help you grow as a person that you may not be able to do in society. Most of our kids can't read and write,” said Terrance.
For Kevin it was the father-figure type mentoring afterwards.
“After I came home, again, there were black men that really came and wrapped their arms around me, that took care of me, and it's one of the main reasons I do what I do to this day,” said Griffin-Clark.
Mack discovered his purpose while in prison: health, fitness, and nutrition, and opened Motivation Team Athletic Academy in Central City.
“I'm able to still talk to people about God, talk to people about they problems. So, it's therapy and you’re also getting healthy at the same time,” said Terrance.
Both now volunteer and mentor youths.
“Most of those kids don't have a home. Most of those kids can go to a house that empty, don't have no furniture, no food, and you expect that child to survive? How? He can't walk to school without carrying a gun because they'll kill him just because he lives in a certain spot,” said Terrance about some of the children he has met.
Mack has a nonprofit “Cultivating Youth” and wants to help hire after school tutors, and one day even open a school.
If you want to help:
Cultivating Youth website: https://linktr.ee/CultivatingYouth?fbclid=PAAaYNr7iUfMp86wkcrrGXPCoxLwV_bVpcDJYkUpZHTSpiwkV-AGin1aAQn7k