Mentor program helping out at-risk young men in Abilene

ABILENE, Texas — Turning boys into gentlemen and preventing at-risk young men from becoming just another statistic, that is what one Abilene man is striving to do by giving those who lack parental figures some guidance.

Chris Daughtery is the founder of From Boys to Gentlemen, a mentor program that works with at-risk youth in Abilene.

“The absence of a father was one of the most damaging things for our community,” said Daughtery.

From Boys to Gentlemen works to fill the void that some young men might be missing when their fathers or other parental figures are not an active part of their lives.

“A young man has a much better opportunity to do positive when it comes to school, success, anything that you look at from that, when he actually has somebody there,” Daughtery said.

One of the most important things that the program tries to teach to young men is to show respect for young women by treating them as if they were their own mother, sister or daughter.

Daughtery is also the author of a book entitled From Boys to Gentlemen and he said that his book can serve as a way to understand just what these young men are going through or feeling like on a regular basis.

Daughtery said that he frames his youth mentoring program around four key pillars.

“Emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication skills and critical thinking. And we believe by establishing those things, it just doesn’t help them from a school setting, but with life skills that we’re lacking in our communities,” said Daughtery.

Daughtery believes that the program can make a difference, not only for children right now, but for many generations to come and he also said that he has already noticed some positive changes taking place in Abilene.

“We’re definitely seeing some success, we’re seeing some lasting changes. We’re working with young men on issues like truancy, working on young men improving their academics and their behavior,” said Daughtery.

Daughtery also said that there must be accountability coming from the local community in Abilene.

“Offer them something different, offer them an opportunity to listen and offer them the opportunity to actually speak life into somebody,” said Daughtery.

Daughtery said that other people simply need to be there for Abilene’s at-risk youth, and by eliminating the “absence of understanding” about what is really going on, that can make a big difference in the community and most importantly, change for the young men in need of some guidance.

If anybody would like to make a donation to From Boys to Gentlemen, they can do so on the organization’s GoFundMe page, and if anybody is interested in more information about the program or potentially getting involved with helping out the program, they can reach Daughtery by email at fb2gmentoring@gmail.com