For years, Lisa Wilson watched boys on the campus of the West End Academy in Atlanta be transformed right before her very eyes.
Boys who once easily gave up were suddenly choosing to persevere. Those with behavioral problems were practicing self-control, and those without hope were dreaming about what was possible for their lives.
Wilson, site coordinator at the performance learning center for students no longer on track to graduate, had never seen anything like it.
But it wouldn't have happened, she said, had Tom Dorsey and his band of brothers not shown up when they did.
“They exposed them to different career paths and taught them entrepreneurial skills,” Wilson said. “But the biggest thing they did was teach them to respect and believe in themselves and each other.”
We've been hearing about the huge impact mentoring can have on youths for years. At its core, mentoring communicates to children that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter.
At the same time, finding mentors is, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges for mentoring programs.
Dorsey has found this out the hard way. Wilson is hoping it’s something he can overcome. Soon.
Wilson is hoping Dorsey and the brothers will be able to return this year.
“It’s a great program,” she said. “Besides that, we need them.”
Dorsey, 79, founded Brother 2 Brothers in 2007, after shuttering a lucrative portrait photography business and trying his hand at the one thing he’d wanted to do all his life — paint.
It was during a trip to California and after a cancer diagnosis, he said, that he realized God wanted him to work with kids.
“But I wasn’t sure how to do that,” Dorsey said.
Then in the fall of 2007, an old customer and school administrator called to invite Dorsey to career day at West End Academy. She called again the next day to tell him the kids had lots of questions about what he told them. Could he come back?
“Next thing I knew, I was going every week,” he said.
Dorsey didn’t just talk about what it was like being a photographer. He was open to entertaining whatever question the kids had. If it was about running his own business, he had an answer. Succeeding in school? He offered a bit of wisdom. Girls? That, too.
Eventually, his talks would become a little more structured. He began taking them on field trips to area businesses. He recruited other retirees to join him.
Instead of one-to-one mentoring, Dorsey and his volunteers work in pairs with groups of eight, essentially modeling how the teens should live their lives from the way they dress to the way they address and respond to each other.
"We believe all children have potential to develop — if society shows them simple, clear, positive examples," Dorsey said. "We help them understand that they are in control of how their lives unfold. We don't tell them to pull their pants up; by the end of the program, they pull their own pants up."
Over the next four years, Dorsey and his volunteers showed up, volunteering at West End and other area schools. In 2011, he took a break to refine the program so his efforts were more effective.
That’s when he got an invitation from officials with the Fulton Leadership Academy to come talk about what he was doing.
When he was done, they’d decided they wanted him on board.
With the start of school now here, Dorsey is in desperate need of volunteers, who are retired like him and who love and want to see children succeed.
"We don't call ourselves mentors. We call ourselves life coaches," Dorsey said. "We all wear black suits, white shirts and gold ties. You have to be retired. You have to be dependable. You have to be a married or divorced father who has an appreciation of family and a minimum of two years of college, proof you value education.
“This is not dependent on any one person, but we’re down to just two of us, so the need for volunteers is serious.”
Studies have shown that pairing youths with caring adults can create a path to successful adulthood; that youths who have a mentor are more likely to attend and be more engaged in school; form more positive social attitudes and relationships and finish high school.
Wilson has seen this with her own eyes. So has Dorsey.
If you want to help, contact him at 404-758-2020.
Whatever you do, remember this isn’t about trying to replace parents and guardians or even teachers. This is about building strong men, and when that happens, we all benefit.
I can’t think of a more pressing reason to help. Call Dorsey now. Then come back later this week and I’ll tell you about another mentoring program launched recently by the Atlanta Police Foundation.
About the Author
