Media solutions versus mentoring solutions

Nascent rumblings of mobilization against crime and violence are being heard throughout Cleveland, as “Take Back Our Streets” becomes the battle cry of the latter half of the decade. A recent televised Town Hall meeting elicited many restatements of the obvious (get guns and drugs off the streets, free up more police officers to walk beats, reinstitute a gang unit and curfews) but offered little in the way of real, systemic changes before breaking down into your basic bitch session with recriminations flying around the soundstage like so many verbal chairs.

This is the usual outcome when well-meaning people with varying agendas — oftentimes narrowly focused — are thrown together for a brief period and attempt to come up with answers to complex social questions. It always takes more than the allotted time for some of these folks to first get their long-held grievances toward each other off their chests... and then try to begin a meaningful dialogue. Due to time constraints the Town Hall made for great confrontational television, but achieved little else of substance.

Nonetheless, if the station stays focused on the problems and follows up with additional, regularly scheduled programming around the issue — as the news commentators vaguely promised — any attention is better than no attention at all. Ditto the coverage being provided by local newspapers; at minimum they at least get the word out about the issues facing Cleveland.

With that said... when we begin turning to TV personalities and newspaper columnists in our search for solutions to crime and societal problems its time to admit that we’re in real deep do-do. There exists many public and private agencies charged with the responsibility of formulating solutions, and part of their charge is to put themselves out of business by actually solving the problems. Now, does anyone think that any TV station or newspaper is trying to put itself out of business? Then why do we think they would actually solve problems... even if they could? For them it’s not about solutions... it’s about ratings and sales — because that’s what drives revenues. With them, it’s all about the Benjamins, period. It absolutely has to be for their ultimate survival.

But the TV slugfest was not totally devoid of value; some valid points were made and made well. Stanley Miller, the president of the NAACP, said in response to one comment that stationing a police officer on every corner in the city would not solve the issue of crime... and he’s right. Not to mention that it’s simply not feasible from manpower and budgetary standpoints. The fact is, no community has yet been able to “police” its way out of its crime problem.

Another bright spot was County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones when he spoke to the real root of the problem: A lack of fathers in inner-city (and increasingly suburban) homes. Until we somehow fix this phenomenon there will be no permanent solution to the problems we are facing with young, urban males. Along with Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell, he has been focusing on the issue for some time now via the Fatherhood Initiative, a national movement designed to impact on the lack of males’ involvement with their offspring. The trouble is, this situation wasn’t created overnight (created by ill-conceived government regulations that forced the father out of the home in order for the mother to receive any kind of assistance), and it will probably take more than one decade to rectify. Which leads us to the question of what do we do in the short term, right now?

Maybe it’s because Linda Dukes Campbell of NASA Glenn works around rocket scientists that she gave voice to a real short-term solution: Mentors. A dyed-in-the-wool member of Delta Sigma Theta, Dukes Campbell, along with Michael Nelson of 100 Black Men, is set to develop mentoring programs to fill the void in these young people’s lives. Dubbed “Operation Black Males,” a coalition of service and fraternal groups will convene at Tri-C’s Metro Campus on Sat., Sept. 15 at 9 a.m. to come up with a citywide mentoring initiative to try to address the problem. Anyone interested can call the NAACP at 231-6260.

Additionally, the State of Ohio, via funds from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), is providing for mentoring of 9th grade boys at schools with high dropout rates. Former State Senator C. J. Prentiss is heading up that effort and is need of interested potential mentors. She can be reached at 614-466-0685.

Now, as noble and necessary as these efforts are, history teaches us they tend to start off with a bang and then quickly fizzle. If we can better understand why this happens perhaps we can better design a mentoring program that has a chance of long-term success. One major cause of failure is that — while many of the organizers of such efforts are getting paid to try to find solutions (or have well-paying jobs) — the folks that are being asked to serve as mentors are not. The “fatigue factor” usually sets in sooner rather than later.

In other cities organizers are recognizing this factor and are finding ways to pay mentors; yes, actually pay them. While some might find that concept philosophically challenging, these are usually the people with those good paying jobs who don’t mind asking others to do heavy lifting for free. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very fine all-volunteer organizations out there, but obviously there are not enough of them to solve the problem. They need to be augmented.

We can wish all we want in regards to people stepping up and volunteering simply because it’s the right thing to do, but if we really want a shot at solving the problem we’d better be prepared to do what works: Find a way to pay at least some mentors. See if they can do better than strictly volunteer mentors. Volunteerism works best among populations that have all of their basic needs adequately met; but in the Black community we are expecting some people who are as broke as the Ten Commandments to step up and give something back ... when their rent is due again next week.

Perhaps the best thing these concerned middleclass Black organizations can do is to try to find ways to raise the funds to hire mentors — mentors that are closer to the problem economically and in terms of life experiences. The plain truth is, middleclass Blacks — even those (myself included) with the best of intentions — are viewed skeptically by young, urban males. In reality, just about the only thing the two groups have in common is skin color.

Why not develop a mentor corps comprised of formerly incarcerated individuals who have demonstrated they have truly turned their lives around? This could be attempted along with other paid mentoring constructs. The formerly incarcerated know how to walk the walk and talk the talk with many of the teenagers who are in need of guidance, and, most importantly, can do so in a language these youth can comprehend. In this manner two problems are solved: Young, at-risk males will get the attention of men they will most likely respect and pay attention to, and work is created for a population that is in need of a meaningful job. Make it a pilot program that is performance-based with longitudinal studies to gauge outcomes. In all probability one full-time, adequately supervised, inspired and paid mentor can accomplish the work of a dozen part-time, some-time volunteers. Similar programs are working in other cities; it’s up to us to create the will and find the funding for such a program here in Cleveland. We simply cannot fail to consider best practices that are working in other parts of the country merely because some reactionary folks here in Cleveland feel that once a person has a criminal record they should be locked out and punished forever and ever, Amen.

Something else we need to be prepared for is the fact that even the best-crafted mentoring program is going to come too late for some of these young men; stronger measures are going to be required to gain their attention and stop the violence. They are simply too far down the wrong road, so when they run afoul of the law, incarceration (with real educational opportunities) is the only logical answer. If they turn their lives around in prison they can perhaps become mentors themselves upon their release.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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