GRO Community, a counseling agency that specializes in trauma informed and culturally sensitive care for young Black men, opened the doors to their new hub in Carbondale, Illinois. Much is still to be done in their space but Dr. Ryan Reed, the southern Illinois supervisor, says this is just part of the process.
As the name suggests, the work of GRO Community, or GRO, as the men involved call it is entirely community based. Reed puts a large emphasis on the power of collaboration and building together.
“We struggle. A lot of the times you deal with stress, you deal with some emotions that you really don’t want to deal with, you don’t know how to deal, you haven’t learned how to deal with,” Reed said. “I’ve learned that the power of building together can really restore a lot hope in not only people but especially children.”
With the help of GRO, Reed is developing a new initiative that he calls the Youth Empowerment Workforce. Reed is providing not only counseling to these young men but also opportunities to learn. Youth Empowerment Workforce focuses largely on developing and teaching trades for these young men.
Reed said often times young people from marginalized communities think that becoming a professional athlete or rapper are the best or only ways to be successful. Being successful in life doesn’t always mean going to a standard 4-year college or university and Reed is instilling this idea in these young men.
“What they don’t realize and what they aren’t taught a lot of the times you can actually go to school for maybe two years, or six months after high school, or just get out with a high school diploma,” Reed said. “Start an apprenticeship program where you can start providing and preparing for you family and for yourself as you grow older.”
Providing mentorship and guidance is another massive part of the work Reed and his team does at GRO. They work to be “violence interrupters” in the lives of these young men.
“A lot of the issues children are running into are the fact that they don’t have a lot of guidance, they don’t have a lot of mentorship, which is what we offer as well, but they also have so much time on their hands,” Reed said. “And they don’t know what to do with it. They also are craving finances. A lot of kids, they come from areas where they don’t have some of the things, some of the bare necessities based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.”
Reed says they’re trying to break the destructive cycle. Through their mentorship they’re able to, not only, help young men avoid the penial system, but to help provide them new opportunities and outlooks on life.
Reed says that what he really wants these men to know is that even when they’re struggling there is people out there who love and care about them.
“There’s a lot of people out here that really love us and that’s what I really want these kids to see. We’re not giving up on you. We’re standing one hundred percent behind you. We’re willing to fight with you. We’re willing to fight for you, we just want people to stop fighting against you.”
