Graduating to Manhood

Youth development programmer Jamee DeWalt gives Isaiah Curtis a congratulatory hug after receiving his certificate following a graduation ceremony for boys in the Passport to Manhood program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Capital City teen center on Friday.
Youth development programmer Jamee DeWalt gives Isaiah Curtis a congratulatory hug after receiving his certificate following a graduation ceremony for boys in the Passport to Manhood program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Capital City teen center on Friday.

Eight boys graduated Friday from the Boys and Girls Club of the Capital City's Passport to Manhood program.

Passport to Manhood is a Boys & Girls Clubs of America program - for ages 11-14 - that involves 14 sessions emphasizing character and manhood.

"The sessions can get gritty and real," said Stephanie Johnson, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Capital City. "A lot of times what they hear in life is what they hear from the streets. In some of these sessions they talk about drugs, relationships, careers, goal setting and responsibility."

The Boys & Girls Club of the Capital City has termed its program the Fly (First love yourself) Academy, which receives $15,000 in annual funding from the Missouri Department of Mental Health. The funding is for the lessons, meals, field trips, and prizes given to the boys who miss one or fewer sessions.

The club in Jefferson City hosts the program about four times a year.

Every Friday of the 14-week program, the boys learn a lesson - such as one about personal wellness or diversity - eat dinner and take a field trip somewhere.

Carl Dement, director of the agency's Teen Center, helps run the Fly Academy with Al Meyers, a volunteer coordinator of the program.

Dement said the program has not only impacted the kids, but also the adults who run it.

"You get a chance to really watch them grow from the program and then bring it back to the center," he said. "It's interesting watching the decisions they make."

During Friday's graduation, the boys had the chance to say what they learned.

Many of them thanked Dement and Johnson for everything they do for them.

"We may have done bad stuff," said Malcom Reid, one of the graduates. "But, now we're here and we changed."

Another graduate, Isaiah Curtis, said he now considers the program participants his brothers.

"I thought I had no friends," he said. "But now I do. I know these guys are like my brothers now."

While the program teaches the boys about responsibility and how to be men, Johnson hopes it gives them so much more.

"For some of them, this is home and this is family," she said. "It's important they always have a sense of belonging."