Tom was a troubled teen.
A year ago, he regularly skipped classes. He got a girl a pregnant, and “was tangled in a tremendous amount of legal trouble,” recalled his mentor, Ben Swihart.
Today, Tom (not his real name), 16, is a student who stays out of trouble and attends most of his classes at his Chicago Public high school.
In fact, a non-profit group has the teen serve as a leader to help other troubled youth, Swihart said.
Swihart and the teen belong to a mentoring program at the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, which is based on the West Side.
The center opened in 2010 to provide legal representation to families in North Lawndale and surrounding areas. But group leaders also knew youth needed help beyond legal problems and quickly started a mentoring program.
It has an after-school program targeted toward high school-aged youth on probation. The organization also provides employment training, academic tutoring, peace circles, substance abuse counseling, community service projects and social outings. At this time, 34 people are being mentored through the program, which works with people 24 and younger.
“This is such an important program because there’s so many kids out here who are lost. They don’t have the relationships with people that show continuous support with their daily life problems,” said Maurice Harris, director of the group’s after-school program.
Mentors take the teens to lunch and play sports with them to build trust. The mentor program follows mentees throughout high school. Mentors eventually help youth with college applications and even job placement.
Swihart, a mentor for nearly two years, recently became an after-school assistant. He said said “the relationships create opportunities and conversations about lifestyles that aren’t on the streets.”
Tom has learned how to be more responsible.
“He started off like many of the young men in the program, very resistant to change and in a situation that didn’t look promising but he has come such a long way,” Swihart said.
The meetings with Swihart and other members of the center persuaded the teen to change his life. To learn more about becoming a mentor for the program, call (773) 762-6381.
This is one in a series of articles being produced through a partnership between the Chicago Sun-Times and the Illinois Mentoring Partnership. The author, Alana Stramowski, is a student at Columbia College Chicago.
