COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Men in the community are encouraging and educating boys about essential life skills that are part of manhood.
On August 16, the Southside Youth Ministry and the Men on a Mission hosted their Boys to Men project.
Male mentorship can shape young men to success, and showing the right resources is what the Men on a Mission program is striving for.
The Southside Youth Ministry partnered with the Men on a Mission program to sponsor a boys to men project at the Southside Missionary Baptist Church.
“We wanted to make a difference in our community. We have a lot of boys who have single homes,” Committee Chair Michael Walker said. “We have boys that are going on the streets and stuff and our deal as a church membership is to build up our boys as they become men and productive in life is what we want to do.”
The project is for young men ages 6 to 18.
Committee Chair Michael Walker said he enjoys being able to connect with young men to a bright future.
“The deal is, even if you reach one, you did something,” Walker said. “If you can keep one off the streets and keep one away from gang members, and we keep one from dying insensibly, we’ve done what we need to be doing.”
“Every time we hear negative news within the Black community, we know that there’s a better way, but it takes us giving ourselves, and this is just one way that we give our time and our resources, that’s other than a Sunday morning,” Pastor Rayfield Evins Jr. said. “So I’m proud of the fact that we are here for our young men here for our community.”
There were engaging activities allowing male mentors to bond with the young men.
The kids said the event was very impactful and motivates them for manhood.
“We bonded pretty well like learn our birthdays, who birthday come first and who the last birthday,” Jimmy Cunningham said. We also had put like paper on the floor to help the team build a way to get to the free throw line. Basically come together as a team.”
“It makes me happy because we need this,” Elijah Gill said. “We can save the world and everything, we need to have and tell boys about everything to be a man. We have to make the world better.”
The Boys to Men Project said it is continuing to find ways to build up young men in the community.
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