'Distractions play a very big part in the world. He says the organization has helped him do his best to stay on the right track.

He and his brothers joined after their father went to prison. Jayden has been a part of fathers among men for about three years. The program director says the organization splits the young men into cohorts- putting those who he calls 'green' in one group and those who have encountered more conflict in another. 'They've had some issues with incarceration or with the criminal justice system and we don't shy away from that,' he said. Many of his mentees have had what he describes as 'real-life experiences.' 'Our goal to mentoring the youth is occupying their time and allowing them to have time to come together to be in and build a new friend group,' Sterdivant explained. SEE MORE PROJECT MACON: Checkmate to crime, chess initiative cultivates critical thinking in youth His boys have learned skills like critical thinking from Chess and the Community along with developing a trade from the organization Barbers on Duty. Sterdivant says they teach those skills in several ways including seminars and symposiums but mostly through collaboration with other local groups. they really plug in the different resources to teach you different life skills you will need when you step out into the real world,' Phoenix explained. 'Fathers Among Men is really a resource channel. Like 19-year-old Phoenix Blackwell, who was in the program until he graduated from high school. According to Sterdivant, some of the older participants in Fathers Among Men stick around to later become mentors to the younger boys. But, they may see themselves in another gentleman I bring in for them to talk with.'Īlong with those speakers and fathers who volunteer their time-, the boys may also see characteristics they admire in their peers. 'Just having me around is not enough,' he explained, 'They need to see multiple people that they can see themselves in and they may not see themselves in me. He's only recently started getting to know his dad.īut Fred, who at home is the father to one daughter, isn't the only dad stepping up to the plate. Fred supports me more than my father does and it makes me want to be more like Mr.

Though the program isn't just for boys who don't have a relationship with their father, Sterdivant says 80% of the young men he works with don't. We think that it's a village,' he said.Ī village of positive male role models for the city's youth- meant to change or improve their perception of what a man is. 'A lot of people think the organization is about kids who don't have a father. The organization began in Atlanta in 2018 before a second site was created in Macon. Sterdivant is the director of Fathers Among Men, an organization that caters to boys and young men in Macon. Fredrick Sterdivant says some days it feels like he's the father to 25 boys and young men.

Black teenage men models pictures