Breaking the cycle of absentee fathers:
CNN
He doesn’t just talk the talk – he walks the walk!!
When Sheldon Smith was a kid his father was in and out of the slams; consequently was not around much of Sheldon’s early life. Like in so many other situations such as this, it eventually caused the young man to go in the wrong direction. Not uncommon.
His case is not unique to the African American community in the USA. According to the census bureau records, nearly 50% of all African-American children grow up without a present/full time father figure. That is not a statistic to be vary proud of.
In most cases no father figure – no structure – no discipline – no role model for the boys in the family and unacceptable habits usually develop because of it. This condition for sure has to be one of the main contributors to why the prison population is over 70% black.
Full of resentment for his father deserting him and the family; Smith went down the wrong road and wound up in jail at 17 for robbery.
Unbeknownst to him, that vacation in the can was a real eye opener. It literally scared the hell of of the young man. At that time he vowed to himself that when he got out, he was not going to continue with that dangerous life-style and make the same mistakes his father did.
On or about 2010, Smith founded an non-profit organization called The Dovetail Project. Since it’s inception, the project has had 200 other men pass the courses Smith developed designed to develop role model skills and ways of making their communities better places to live.
In this day and age, all we have to do is look around or read the news to see that programs such as this are desperately need in all communities not just the black.
Parenting today in many situations have become a joke, it does not exist. Kids are having kid – kids that are being raised in the same environment that Smith was. They have no idea what a parent responsibility is supposed to be because they didn’t have a role model either.
With people like Sheldon Smith trying to make a difference, possibly/wishful thinking, this mindset in the community will catch on and more people will follow in Smith’s foot steps.
The Goomba Gazette 