Today we’d like to introduce you to Calvin Mann
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
So I was a young man laying shirts with kids was getting killed back in 2004 and the city of Detroit. As I continue to lay the shirts I get a call from my mom who asked me to mentor her son in 2006 and she lived way out and she asked me to help her get her son off of the video game that mom. Mom will go on to give me the nonprofit Encourage Me I’m Young Inc. is our 17th year. I’ve been involved with you since the age of 20 so over 39 years making a difference and trying to make the world a better place. It’s been tough as you will know when you have Purpose , a kid really wear on everybody else around your family has to sacrifice and so my kids have been a blessing in this department and it is not easy. It was different for me. I saw early that something had to be done and when I couldn’t do it on my own, it was my godfather Mr Jim Currie Senior who gave me a whistle and that moment change my life forever. In 2010 while working at the juvenile, I recognize that in the juvenile were picking up the kids on Ritz to fill up the beds and so I got with a friend we grabbed 350 boys to protect them from being arrested and incarcerated today today that Mentoring program is now 12 years in and since 2007 we’ve impacted over 23,000 Youth with a surprisingly small budget. That’s the part. We gotta figure out we competition with other major organizations, but we have a real sweet space in our work. We have a 98% parental involvement we help the mothers we help the fathers for more importantly we help young man ages 8 to 24.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well, we had plenty of obstacles in the story right because we’ve not fully been supported and funded and somehow we keep manufacturing success piece by piece. We’ve done all the bells and whistles but somehow we just haven’t found the right people to buy into our visit. One of the biggest struggles besides Funding is location like to be able to because there’s so much more work that we could be doing That not having your own location can be Barry so we have to rent it even on our website we got a vision for empowerment center but you know sometimes you often figure as the leader of this vision how do I get to the next level another obstacle is for us it’s being able to hire people so we can do more but the way we overcome is volunteers and families who believe in the vision who seen their sons go on to success. We’ve also had some good luck and blessings from some other people and that’s been the way we sustain the partnership the right people sponsorship we’ve been able to sustain.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Great questions honestly since a child I grew up with family and I was always inspired by uncles and aunts and my mom and my dad so I just hang onto the words encouragement and I’ve used encouragement and that’s what I specialize in Because that’s the best way to raise a child well I’m known for I’m known for helping and being supportive to many people even when I was younger, I would help protect classmates and friends. I get there from the family atmosphere which is why we restoring family and our program. Oh, they think most proud of is seeing the fruits of my labor and work and purpose and seeing young people succeed, watching young men going to be all Americans and college coaches and fathers that’s one of the main things i’m most proud of it seeing my young man become fathers. I think the one thing that sets me apart from the average is the sacrifice and the love for my fellow human. And my work it’s always been about the young people. The last 17 years has been about, going against the Grain not following the door when everybody is doing one thing we kind of stick to our same formula cognitive help, making sure that our young men are healthy supporting our young men visiting schools, loving them, inspiring them, more importantly, living a good life in front of them that they may see what a man looks like the thing is we use fathers and MENTOR and that’s the thing I think another thing almost proud of
What were you like growing up?
Oh, I had a great life growing up coming from a big family a boys two girls in particular learning from my brothers and uncles great grandfather and grandfather and my dad. I was this little chubby guy on the in the neighborhood going around creating dance routines, helping and the neighborhood cutting grass shoveling snow snow snow working at the corner Have my own paper, but I come from my parents having their own businesses and charter buses so growing up, I got to see a lot until the divorce. My parents divorce and we had to live a different life and that was very very tough. Look back I look back and I laugh at that young man because I was ambitious, very ambitious and wanted to prove myself no matter what. I was very funny I could crack jokes with the best of them at one point people would always say certain things because I was chubby, but I learned to defend myself with my jokes so very witty, I was interested in engineering and sports because my brother was playing basketball and football and so for me I found myself taking up sports and music because I come from music. My dad was the gospel artist signed by Motown so I knew all about music and sing and got to perform with my brother and my brother we had when I became a younger adult at 18 but more importantly I was funny and caring and I’m still some of those things right and that’s where I see myself as a caring, charismatic father and a husband that cares
Pricing:
- 25 donation
- 100 donation
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.emiyworld.com
- Instagram: @emiyworld_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Encouragemeimyoung?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: @Emiyworld
- Youtube: Emiytv
Image Credits
The Collective
Dr. Heather Miller-Mann
Dr. Suzzan Jarrett
Crystal L. Gunn
Dr. Calvin T. Mann