How 4 people are creating change by investing in Fayetteville youth. 'They feel that love'
Dayquon White had a difficult childhood, but the 24-year-old Army veteran has made it his mission to ensure Cumberland County’s youth don’t face the same problems.
White is the executive director of Vets for Youth, a program he created in 2021 with local businessman and fellow veteran Tony Brown. The group pairs veterans with children who need support.
“I usually deal with kids between 14 and 17 years old, some 18,” White said Monday. “It’s a lot of high school kids. They’re the ones that are the most at-risk. They’re starting to get into the real world and understand responsibilities … and that can potentially lead them to make bad decisions depending on their living situation and who’s around.”
White is one of dozens of Cumberland County volunteers aiming to positively impact the lives of local youth. Such efforts appear to be backed by data — a 2007 study by researchers at the National High School Center found that students who meet regularly with a mentor are 52% less likely than their peers to skip school and 46% less likely to start using illegal drugs.
“A lot of kids, they just get overpoliced,” White said. “But when you allow kids to actually get mentored by other people that have been in their shoes or that look like them or that come from a similar situation and that actually care about them. … The kids can feel that.”
The connection children make with a mentor is what leads to crucial changes for the mentees involved, he said.
“They feel that love,” White said. “It makes them want to do better for themselves, because now they have an attachment to somebody or something that’s bigger than themselves, and they don’t want to disappoint or fail who they love.”
'It really warms your heart'
Youth mentorship programs in Cumberland County vary in form, with some being led by chapters of organizations like college fraternity and sorority chapters, while others are grassroots operations hosted in the founder's home.
Jeffrey Womble is the ombudsman at Fayetteville State University and the adviser for FSU’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically Black fraternity. He created the local alumni chapter’s mentorship program.
“It’s called I Am A.L.P.H.A., and A.L.P.H.A. in this case is an acronym for ‘I am always learning positive habits and attributes,’” Womble said Monday. “It’s a program for high school boys — juniors and seniors — but, of course, we’ll accept those at any high school grade level.”
Womble started the program in 2007, initially partnering undergraduate Alpha Phi Alpha members with male students at E.E. Smith High School, he said. After realizing that members of the alumni chapter were less likely to move away, Womble changed the program to be led by Alpha Phi Alpha graduates so they could stay in touch with participants.
I Am A.LP.H.A. runs yearly, Womble said, beginning each October and ending in June with a “Beautillion” ball where the young men who have completed the program are formally introduced to society at a gala. During those eight months, the teens attend weekly workshops on a variety of topics, ranging from dining etiquette to financial aid for college, he said.
This year, the program has 14 mentees, according to Womble.
“It really warms your heart and it really makes us feel that we have achieved something great,” he said.
White’s Vets for Youth program also largely works with male high schoolers, though it is open to all ages, he said.
“Right now, I have about six in total that I talk to and I go see on a regular basis,” White said. “I definitely want to help the kids that need it the most, but every kid is welcome, anybody that needs assistance.”
Vets for Youth has a one-on-one approach, he said, although White also takes the children out for group activities like basketball games or dinners. White said the free program currently has three mentors and five mentees.
“I also like to bring the kids to Fayetteville State University, kind of walk around and see the campus,” he said. “A lot of kids from Fayetteville, even the ones that live on Murchison Road and live right beside the school, have never even been on Fayetteville State’s campus.”
Being a mentor has changed his life, White said.
“I get a sense of fulfillment when I’m able to help these kids and help completely change and guide their lives,” he said. “It makes me want to go further … I never thought about joining politics or anything like that, but now one of my goals is to run for mayor.”
Seeing aspirations and accomplishments like that is important for his mentees, White said.
“Sometimes it’s hard for a kid to see 30, 40 years in the future,” he said. “When they see me being successful and owning businesses and doing things and potentially running for mayor in a couple of years, they’re like, ‘OK, he was just with us. He was around us. So if he can do it, I can do it, as well.’”
Not just for the boys
At least two free programs in Cumberland County focus on providing mentorship to young girls — the Jr Artist Program For Girls, created by Saneequa Barlow, and Purposed Pearls Mentoring, founded by Dominique Ashley.
Ashley, 28, said Monday that she began the program in 2017 under a different name and it evolved into Purposed Pearls in 2019. The program aims to reach girls ages 9 to 16.
“Our mentoring program is hybrid,” she said. “The virtual part of it is just the virtual mentoring sessions.”
Those hour-long sessions are held on the first and third Mondays of each month, Ashley said, with mentors creating plans for the sessions based on the program’s three pillars of community, education and lifestyle.
“It’s group mentoring,” she said. “We do have in-person stuff. We’re really big on community service, so, for example, we adopted a street through the city of Fayetteville’s Adopt-a-Street initiative. We have Washington Drive, which is where the MLK statue is at, and we clean that once a month.”
The girls also must plan and execute a community service project every semester, and in-person gatherings like arts and crafts sessions are offered throughout the year, Ashley said. Applications for mentors open each summer and potential mentors go through interviews and background checks before being selected by the Purposed Pearls team, she said. This year, the program has 20 girls and 10 mentors, according to Ashley.
Ashley said she is especially excited about a new partnership that began Monday with Howard Hall Elementary School in Fayetteville.
“It’s basically just sending two mentors there during lunch, and they’re going to mentor some girls,” she said. “I’m really, really excited about this.”
She did not know how many students will participate yet, but the partnership will help girls in third through fifth grade, Ashley said.
Barlow’s Jr Artist Program targets a similar age range, focusing on girls ages 12 to 16, she said.
“We empower them by providing them free workshops and seminars and just helpful day-to-day life instruction,” Barlow said Monday. “We go on field trips to places like Victoria’s Secret and get our breasts measured so that they know how to wear proper bras. We have period workshops where we show them different ways how to combat their period.”
Barlow, a licensed cosmetologist, runs the program from her home and rents spaces for events and workshops, relying on community donations and extra income from her Breezewood Avenue hair salon, she said.
“We always host a free summer camp every year,” she said. “We provide transportation. We provide two meals. Everything they need is just 100% free. All they’ve got to do is show up.”
Past workshop topics have included self-defense, human trafficking awareness, local politics and mental health, Barlow said.
“My numbers double every year,” she said, noting that the 2023 summer camp had 25 participants. “We’re growing faster than I can accommodate everyone.”
The program is exclusively run by women, Barlow said.
“We have young ladies from all demographics and walks of life,” she said. “We get support from Sen. Val Applewhite. She’s come and spoken to our group. Councilwoman (Courtney Banks-)McLaughlin … she’s spoken to our group many times.”
Barlow said she was inspired to start the program by an experience with a salon client’s daughter.
“One of my clients, she was talking about her daughter needing some sort of program or mentorship, and I’m like, ‘Hey, why don’t you have her come to the salon on the weekends, she can make some money, and then I’ll teach her how day-to-day shop operations go?’” she recalled. “We brought her in and from there, the idea was formed.”
It’s a concept shaped by her own childhood, Barlow said.
“My mom was a hardworking woman, but she just always wasn’t able to afford to put me in everything. The things that sounded great had an underlying fee,” she said.
Now, Barlow said, she has watched the program impact young women in similar situations throughout the county, including one girl who struggled with self-confidence after her mother died.
“She is being raised by her father,” Barlow said. “We taught her how to use limited resources to make herself feel better instead of feeling like she had the pressure of having what everyone else had. She learned through our program how to do her own hair, more specifically because the first day her hair was undone because her father was raising her. She also has had a few period accidents. She was my inspiration for starting our period talks.”
Barlow said the change in the young woman has been palpable since she began attending the Jr Artist Program.
“You can tell, yeah, she still struggles in some areas,” she said. “However, she has developed in a way where she actually takes pride in her appearance now even more than ever.”
Coming soon: In part two of our series, we profile those who have changed lives and had their lives changed by Fayetteville youth mentorship programs.
Got a tip for a follow-up on this story? Government watchdog reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at ABSolomon@gannett.com or 910-481-8526.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville youth mentorship programs help local students
