Jon Bon Jovi is used to being on stage in sold out arenas and stadiums.
On Friday, the rock icon worked a much smaller crowd, sitting in a circle with about a dozen youth gathered in a back room at the Goodwill Career Center on Buford Highway.
Bon Jovi came to Atlanta a day before his band’s scheduled performance at Philips Arena as part of his involvement with the White House Council for Community Solutions. The 25-member group was formed in December by President Obama to identify and address community needs.
Along with fellow council member Michael Kempner, CEO of the New Jersey-based public affairs and public relations firm MWW Group, Bon Jovi, a longtime philanthropist and creator of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, has embarked on a series of listening sessions with youths from community-based organizations.
“We get to amplify their voices,” said Kempner.
The Friday meeting with young adults from Atlanta-based CHRIS Kids and Visions Youth Leadership Academy, as well as civic leaders including Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond, was the second session for Bon Jovi and Kempner. The first was last month in New Orleans and more, scheduled during days off on Bon Jovi’s tour, are planned in Houston and New York.
Now with two listening sessions behind them, Kempner and Bon Jovi, who happily posed for photos with the group after the meeting, are hearing some similar requests.
“It’s all about trust. In both cities, we’ve heard they want a role model to believe in them, and there’s a real need for life skills,” Kempner said.
“They love the idea of being mentored,” Bon Jovi added, “and want to remind you that behind the facade, they’re kids. These kids are determined to buck the system and that is just exemplary.”
One member of Friday’s group, Giovan Bazan, 20, spent 11 years in foster care in California and Georgia, where he said he was abused and neglected.
By the time he became a teen, normal rebellion, coupled with his challenging home life, led to repeated visits to juvenile detention centers.
Now the young man, sharply clad in a black suit and red satin tie, lives in a CHRIS Kids apartment and works as a youth support specialist for the State Office of Department of Family and Children and is a project coordinator for Georgia Youth Empowerment.
At Friday’s session, Bazan said he told Bon Jovi and Kempner about the importance of a strong support system for teens and the need to scrutinize prescription medication doled out in the foster care system.
But his immediate goal is, simply, to make his voice heard.
“My whole thing is that there are so many people who have so much passion,” Bazan said. “But you can do the biggest thing in the world and if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t matter.”
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