On Monday afternoon, Julie Reynolds introduced us to the idea of the “School to Prison Pipeline” and she noted the disproportionate number of Latinos and Blacks in the US prison system. A class member noted this idea has also been called the “Birth to Prison Pipeline” in some settings.
Willie Stokes, the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Sheep Redemption Program, a non-profit organization that reaches out to at risk youth, shared his story redemption on Monday evening. As he spoke, it was clear that his story was a story of the Birth to Prison Pipeline. The chaos in his childhood was incessant. There was no rest in his journey. Abuse, fear, and insecurity filled his childhood. I come back to the question I asked in my previous blog, “How do we care for our children?”
Willie’s childhood story broke my heart. At so many points in Willie’s childhood, adults let him down. His uncle’s abusive behavior was one appalling example of the many painful stories he shared. As one of our classmates noted, these stories name the reality of evil in the world.
Willie shared that as a youth he was on the school football team and that he loved playing football. One day, he got into an argument with the coach and he quit the team. My class notes to myself say, “Hey, why didn’t the coach go after him and keep him on the team?” Teams can offer a youth recognition, identity, and security. Why didn’t the coach follow up with him? I don’t know the story. Perhaps he did, perhaps he did multiple times. I do not know.
I read a book years ago whose title escapes me, but it tells the story of a youth who was cut from the football team because his grades were below the minimum grade required to stay on the team. Looking for a place to have an identity, having lost his team, he joined a gang. He was killed by gun violence within a few months. I tapped into that sadness as Willie told his story. I believe we need to create and support better safety nets for our children.
Several years ago, my town participated in the One Book, One Town project. As a town, we read “Outcasts United” by Warren St. John. In this book we learned how one woman in Georgia created a boys soccer team for some of the refugees in her town. These boys, all from different countries and all speaking different languages, all had the common language of soccer. The team was a place of identity, security and recognition for these youth. She did keep high standards for the team in terms of accountability and she was also very caring of these youth. The book recounts the challenges of prejudice they encountered and the triumph and successes of the boys on the team. A story of hope. A team. A sports team. One way to care for our children.
We all have a responsibility to our young people. Addressing the SDG’s and working with neighborhood organizations and/or creating organizations to offer care and support for those growing up in communities known for their violence are vitally important. And I see an important role for schools, churches and other neighborhood organizations creating local opportunities for youth to find identity, security and recognition. Reaching out to all youth with programs for care and support, including offering healthy sports teams can build bridges to health both for those youth we know are impacted by violence and those whose stories are unknown to us, but who are silently crying out for help. The measure of our success will be how we care for our children.
