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Ron Anthony from IMPACT-1 Mentoring joins Zach this week to share what he has learned about mentoring through the years. This week, they discuss how IMPACT reaches their kids, maintains relationships with the kids who graduate from the program, and some practical advice for working with kids from hard places.
Show Notes
Ron Anthony from IMPACT-1 Mentoring joins Zach this week to share what he has learned about mentoring through the years. This week, they discuss how IMPACT reaches their kids, maintains relationships with the kids who graduate from the program, and some practical advice for working with kids from hard places.
IMPACT-1: https://www.facebook.com/Impact1DM
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
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IMPACT-1: https://www.facebook.com/Impact1DM
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:A mentor carries what some would say is the greatest responsibility one can choose to take on in life. A mentor's job is to invest in the thing that is most precious to god, people. There is no greater investment in life than the one you can make in people. So look around you. Have you ever considered yourself a mentor?
Speaker 2:Do you think you have what it takes? Well, our job on this podcast and in a book we recently released is to prove to you that you do. You can mentor. You were made for this. Check the show notes.
Speaker 2:Pick up the latest book that we just released called You Can Mentor written by Zach Garza as he shares his story of how his life was changed through mentors.
Speaker 3:Hello. My name is Jamelle Carter. Today's episode is an interview with Ron Anthony from Impact One Mentoring. They build lifelong relationships with teens in their community to develop them into difference makers. We hope today's episode gives you or your organization value.
Speaker 3:If so, we'd love to hear about it. Leave a review, rate the podcast, and share this episode with someone you think would benefit from the content. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4:Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast. I'm sitting here with my friend Ron Anthony from Impact Mentoring. Ron, say hi, my friend.
Speaker 5:How you doing, guys? Great to be here.
Speaker 4:Ron and I go back. So we actually used to teach together at Lake Highlands Junior High School. And I was just on Facebook a couple weeks ago surfing around, and I found Ron. And he's now a principal at school in Garland, Texas, and he started a program called Impact Mentoring. So, Ron, why don't you just share about you and your heart for mentoring and what's going on over there at Impact Mentoring?
Speaker 5:Well, number number 1 is great to connect with you again. I know I know it's been a while, and, you know, when you when you reach out to me on Facebook, you know, I think God lines things up. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So
Speaker 5:that that that's where we start. So like I say, I'm definitely happy to be here. I'm originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I've been out in in in the Texas area about about 18, 19 years now. Like you said, you and I connected at Lake Highlands Junior High's teachers and coaches.
Speaker 5:But born and raised in Baton Rouge, inner city, real tough area. You know, I was fortunate to to have my dad in the home in addition to, you know, other positive men through through youth sports, you know, which really really kept us off the streets, honestly. You know?
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah. Ron, I forgot that. You can play yourself a little bit of basketball, can't you?
Speaker 5:Just a little. Just a little.
Speaker 4:You're a good point card. Me and the 2 of us used to used to kill those kids in the staff versus student basketball games.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir. Those those were the good days that I that I hit 40.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I understand that.
Speaker 5:Yes. Yes.
Speaker 4:Well, that's awesome. Yeah. So so just so tell me why you care about mentoring.
Speaker 5:It kinda goes back to, like I stated, to keep my brother and I off the streets, my parents put us in youth sports football and basketball mainly, and just just being able to be around positive role models. Because, you know, I would watch my dad go to work 12, 15 hours a day in addition to the other coaches, and then they would come in the evenings and coach us for an an additional 2 hours, 5 to 7, in addition to, you know, coaching us on the weekend. So they were being pulled from their families to to point to us. Mhmm. So, you know, just as a young age, you know, there was something in my spirit that said one day, don't wanna have an impact on on on teenagers and just young men of that nature.
Speaker 5:And then my last probably 4 years of college, I had a chance to work at, like, the YMCA and other youth programs in Baton Rouge, and that's where I I really got a chance to see the impact that I can have on the next generation. So just being mentored as a as a youth and then having an opportunity right before graduation to to actually impact lives. You know, once I got to Texas, I was I was ready to take off, and the sky was the limit.
Speaker 4:Yeah. That's awesome, man. Now, you got yourself a wife and some kiddos. Right?
Speaker 5:Yes, sir. My wife and I, Tarshish, we've been married. I'm getting ready to make 19 years in September. September 13th. We have Cameron, who's our oldest 16 year old.
Speaker 5:He's a sophomore at Richardson High School, and then my, 2 youngest, Mason, 11. And the one who I say runs the house, McKinley Grace, my daughter. She's, she's 5.
Speaker 4:That's great, man. That's awesome. Hey. Well, so the 2 of us were talking a tad bit before the podcast, and, man, I would just love to hear about how Impact Mentoring came about, and you were sharing some about about the book of Nehemiah. So I wanna hear about it, man.
Speaker 4:I wanna hear from the very beginning.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir. So I like like I said, coming out of college and and being involved in youth sports, I knew I wanted to work with kids. I mean, and my avenue to get into that, I guess, that area was through education. So, you know, I majored in education, came out here to to Texas, and it's weird when I look at the mentoring program that I put together now, I was doing all those things back at Lake Highlands Junior High without the structure. Didn't have a name to it, but I was making an impact.
Speaker 5:And, you know, going back to the book of Nehemiah, you know, if you if you know that story, he he inquired about his people. And the news that he, you know, he received, it was not good. The walls were down. The people were not in good shape. So it's no different than what I did with Impact 1, you know, before it had a name.
Speaker 5:I saw, you know, the young young men in this area and and and other areas throughout, you know, the the DFW area that that needed help, and some walls were down. And when I say walls were down, there were not enough fathers in the home. You know, the kids came from unstructured in environments to where, you know, the crime rate was high. So some of the things that these young men saw growing up, you know, it's it's like I said, lord, I I need to get involved. So just similar to Nehemiah, I inquired about my people and the things that I heard, you know, just like Nehemiah made me mourn.
Speaker 5:You know? Because he did 3 things. He mourned, he fasted, and he prayed. So, you know, after growing up in that environment and then, you know, working with young men out here, I said, Lord, you have to give me something to make an impact on these young men. And and and his sense of humor, you know, God was like, I've already given it to you.
Speaker 5:You you just have to step out there on faith and be bold enough to do what's in your heart, which is my life purpose, which is working with with young men. So I kinda put things on paper first, came up with a whole plan of a mentoring program, how I would if I was a kid, you know, what would what would draw my attention and make the most impact on my life. So I put it down on paper probably for about 5 years, and I just sat on it. You know, didn't do anything with it, you know, in in a sense being disobedient to God. You know, he he gave me this vision, gave me this purpose, and and like I said, I sat on it for 4 years.
Speaker 5:But going back to the book of Nehemiah, after he fasted, prayed, you know, to to the Lord, he, you know, he asked for resources, which God gave to him. But the the one thing that was missing that I think kinda cost me 5 years, if you notice, Nehemiah, he could not have rebuilt the wall without help. Mhmm. So just this past year, my coworker, mister Robinson, who's a marketing teacher, I shared my vision with him this summer, you know, at the right at the middle of COVID. He was like, man, I'm coming from the nonprofit world, and I've done some mentoring work in South Dallas.
Speaker 5:And I was like, lord, this is this is this is my running mate.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 5:So shared the vision with him. And, you know, just based on the things that, you you know, we're doing on Facebook, people think we've been doing this for a long time, but Impact 1 was born at the beginning of this school year.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:So, like I said, we we've been doing a lot of great things and impacting a, a lot of great, you know, brought a a lot of great young men.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. That's awesome, Ron. So, like, can you share with us just kinda what a day to day whenever a kid chooses to spend time with Impact 1 looks like? What are the notes and bolts of what it is that you guys do?
Speaker 5:Okay. So there there are 4 main components that we we structure the program around. I mean, the first one is called Pack 1 Academy. That's our one to one mentoring.
Speaker 4:K.
Speaker 5:And what we do, because we build we believe in lifelong relationships, when the young men come into the program in early August after we kinda go through our recruiting, we sit down with each young man and come up with what we call a p three. It's a personal purpose plan. And we sit down with a young man, and we we devise long term goals, short term goals in addition to some action steps to actually get to those goals. So that's our one to one mentoring. And, you know, throughout the year, as the year goes on, you know, we have 1 on 1 meetings with the young men to see where they are academically.
Speaker 5:You know, are they having, you know, girl problems? Are they having issues at home? So we do a lot of 1 on 1 mentoring through the Pac 1 Academy.
Speaker 4:So that's amazing. Tell me how you came up with that. And if you don't mind, can you give me an example of, like, of a goal that a kid has and try to walk me through just a scenario as to how you guys take a kid from point a and have them get to point b?
Speaker 5:Okay. So PAC 1 kinda came up with that idea of the number 1. I see a lot of programs, which is great. They're trying to reach thousands of kids. But, you know, I always say, lord, if I can just impact 1, you know, I can sleep good at night.
Speaker 5:So that's where Pac 1 Academy comes from. We're folk focusing on the individual kid even though we'd also do group mentoring. I mean, a good example of the the p 3, there's a young man that we're working with now, football player, didn't get a scholarship, but he wants to go to college. So we just met with him 1 on 1 this morning, myself and mister Robinson, and a part of his p three plan is we're gonna walk him through the the college entrance process, everything from financial aid to, you know, coming up with your major. So that's kinda what the the the p three plan looks at.
Speaker 5:We set that goal, but then we also put in action steps, and then we hold them accountable when they're not, you know, getting getting closer to achieving that goal.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Like, I love that because you're not saying, hey. Here's here's what I want for you. Instead, you're asking them, hey. You tell me how I can help you achieve your dream.
Speaker 4:Right?
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 4:Right. That's amazing.
Speaker 5:That's it.
Speaker 4:That's super cool. Alright. I'm a steal that.
Speaker 5:Yeah. You got it. You got it.
Speaker 4:Alright. Why don't you talk to us about that second thing?
Speaker 5:Now the second thing is called the PAC 30, and this is the one that really gets me excited because everybody all the young men who are involved in PAC 1 Mhmm. Is pretty much involved in PAC 30. And that's every Friday. We kinda get together, down in our marketing room, and the young men come in, and we bring in current events, you know, from the from the recent police shootings to politics to you know, we we we take it from a historical spiritual standpoint. And it it's just a opportunity for them to learn from us, but also for us to to learn from them.
Speaker 5:But the key thing that makes PAC 30, we're also teaching leadership skills. And when I say leadership skills on how to run a meeting, if you come to any of our meetings, every meeting, we're gonna we're gonna do 2 things. First thing we're gonna do, we're gonna have what's called a unity check because I feel before we can dive into any type business, we have to check on each other. So each young man is required in addition to the mentors, we're required to stand and speak to the group and say, hey. How's the week going?
Speaker 5:Are you struggling with anything? Is there anything we can support you with? And each young man gets the opportunity to kinda say where they are because we have to check their hearts before we can actually get into what we call business. So any meeting you come to, we always start with what's called the unity check. Then number 2, after the unity check, we go into the Impact one declaration, and I brought some for you guys.
Speaker 5:And that's led by mister Robinson, and I'll give you a good example. All the groups are staying, and we'll say, today, I will make good decisions. Today, I would demonstrate my own self value. Today, I would not make excuses, and we go through this process every Friday right after the unity check. So the leadership skill that we're chi teaching is that when you lead a group of people, you always have to check on them first before you get down to business.
Speaker 5:And then like I say, just as an affirmation, each guy got one that they hang on their wall that they, you know, they cover every morning. But before every meeting, we always cover those those 2 items. So that's that's kinda pack 30, and then we'll go right into either we'll learn a skill. We may talk financial literacy. We had our nurse come in to talk about health because the the young men not only hear from us, but we we like to bring in what's called experts.
Speaker 4:K.
Speaker 5:You know, who has knowledge in an area that we may not, you know, really have a a a deep knowledge that can actually help to young men. So and that's PAC 30, and we're in there about probably about 90 minutes. And, you know, we we what we call we go hard. You know, we we hold each other accountable. You know, if there's a disagreement, we we we teach them how to agree to disagree without it turning physical.
Speaker 5:So, I mean, this this a lot of great things that comes through the PAC 30 Academy.
Speaker 4:So you're teaching them a number of things there. 1, you're teaching them how to speak in front of their peers. You're teaching them how to be open, how to get stuff that might be into the darkness out into the light. You're teaching them how to respond whenever their peers hear that one of their friends is going through a hard time. You're teaching them how to have a have a positive discussion about things that they may or may not see eye to eye on.
Speaker 4:You're teaching them how to how to speak life over themselves and how to say out loud, hey, here is what I'm gonna do. Here's how the Lord has created me. Man, this is awesome, Ron. Tell me how you prepare for that, and tell me how you pick the events that you guys choose to talk about.
Speaker 5:Normally, probably on a weekend, it's always preplanned on what we what we wanna talk about. Say, for example, if we were teaching how to we did the activity with the young men on how to create long and short term goals. So I always plan it about a week in advance. But if there's something that happens in the world that I feel that these young men need to hear about, I'll kinda scratch what we're doing, and we'll go directly to talking about that current event. So always have something preplanned, but if, like I said, if if God places something on my heart that I feel that I need to share with the young men, we'll call it audible and go to a different direction.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, I mean, I can just kinda perceive, Ron, that you you really do care a lot about what the Lord has to say to these kids and what the Lord wants to teach these kids. So tell me how you go about partnering with the Lord to to figure out the ways that he wants to work in their lives. Is it through prayer? Is it through fasting?
Speaker 4:Is it through yeah. Yeah. Just kinda speak on that a little bit.
Speaker 5:A lot of prayer.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And, you know, what I what I call my quiet time, and, you know, quiet time looks different from from all of us because my quiet time can be in between my ride home from Naaman to pick up my kids. I got maybe a 10 minute span to where I can I I can hear from God? Or in the mornings, you know, what I call my morning worship on the way, and I'll put on, I think it's 94 point 9, a Christian station, so where I can really, you know, just hear from God through music. Mhmm. And a lot of my ideas are created in the truck on the way to work.
Speaker 4:That's awesome.
Speaker 5:And once I get the work, I kinda put it down on paper, meet with my my teammate, mister Robson, and then we just kinda put lessons together and and and kinda go from there.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. Alright. So you talked about the Pac 1. You talked about the Pac 30. Why don't you tell me what's next?
Speaker 5:So the 3rd component would be what we call I serve.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 5:And that's pretty much about serving the community. Because if you take a look at our vision and and and mission statement, we talk about being a staple in the community. So when you think about a staple machine, you know, as simple as it as it is, the purpose is to hold things together. Mhmm. So we are there to be a staple within the name and community or just throughout the DFW area with whatever group that we are working with.
Speaker 5:So there's two sides to IServe. We want to teach the young men that it's better to to give than receive. Mhmm. So this year's COVID kinda slowed us down, but next year, we're we're gonna get out and do some work in the community. And a good example would be right up the road from the school with within walking distance, there's a Target, Walmart, other other businesses.
Speaker 5:So we're gonna get out on weekends and just talk to, you know, the the managers there and say, how can we serve you? It could be something simple on a Saturday from 8 to 12. Can we push the baskets in? Can we pick up trash in the parking lot? And that that's gonna teach our young men that it's good to be a blessing to to other people.
Speaker 5:So that's I serve. But the other side of it, we want to be a place where anybody can come. You know? Whether they're in a naming community, or we're working with kids in Richardson to wear whatever they need, we can provide. If a kid needs school clothes, they need backpacks, they need the bare essentials like your deodorants, your toothpaste.
Speaker 5:We're there to provide that. So that's that's kind of the I serve to where we're we're gonna get out in the community. You know, we're we're gonna serve.
Speaker 4:That's great, man. Can you kinda share a story about how serving because for me, I think I think the lie that I believe is, oh, it's it's just pushing in baskets. You know, it is it's only providing a backpack. It's only providing you know? Can you share a story about how you've seen a kid's perspective change based on serving based on focusing not on himself, but focusing in on providing a need or service for someone else?
Speaker 5:I could just think of just multiple examples this year. You know, our first few meetings, we we provide the basis to the guys like your Gatorade, just snacks that we have during the PAC 30. And there's one young young man, Seth Smith. He's a freshman this year. You know, he would come up to me in the cafeteria and say, hey, mister Anthony.
Speaker 5:I didn't bring any money today. Do you have a dollar? And I always, you know, just carry a little pocket change that's way back to my Lake Highlands days and that I would give to him. But I knew I was making an impact when I saw him turn and help his brother. Another member of Impact won out when they came up short on their lunch.
Speaker 5:So just just instilling the the blessing or the importance of being a blessing to other people, I watch myself do it to Seth and then Seth do it to somebody else. It's almost starting, like, starting a ripple effect. Yeah. So that I mean, that's that's huge.
Speaker 4:That's huge. That's a great story. Alright. Tell us about that 4th thing.
Speaker 5:And the 4th thing is called because one of our mottos is that we believe in lifelong relationships. Mhmm. And it's called EyeLink. And the purpose of EyeLink is when the young men leave Impact 1, which they'll graduate, whether they go off to college, the military, or go into the the workforce, we wanna make sure that we don't lose connection with them. Because just thinking about some of the the programs that I I saw in Baton Rouge or even out in the Texas area, when the kids kinda transition out, they tend to to get lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 5:But we believe in lifelong relationships to where if we are mentoring you at 13, we should be mentoring and coaching you at 35 or 40. So no different in the mayor until until death do us part. You know, we wanna have that mindset to where we wanna be in a young man's life forever, and I can give you a good example. There are a a group of kids who came through Lake Highlands. I think right before you got there, 2003, we had an excellent team.
Speaker 5:Went undefeated in in every sport. And, you know, I coached and mentored those guys in 2004 as teenagers. So those conversations were, are you taking care of business academically? You know? Are are you making sure that you are surrounding yourself with positive people?
Speaker 5:Well, there's, one guy I know specifically, He's a now a a teacher coach in Wylie ISD. He after he left Lake Hollis, went on to Allen High School, played at Eastern Kentucky, and we are still in contact till this day. So now the mentoring, conversations change from maybe academics or making sure you're coming to school on time to because he's married and has kids. How are you leaving your home? You know?
Speaker 5:Are you are you are you are you working to improve yourself as a as a father? So now the mentoring piece is still there. Even though Impact 1 wasn't hadn't been born yet back then, I was still doing some of the same things. So our motto is that we wanna be in those young men's lives forever. Yeah.
Speaker 5:And, you know, through social media and and just, you know, technology, there's no reason we should ever lose contact with.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. How do you do that? Like, tell me how you you take it from a kid who you met whenever he's 14, and then, you know, you're continuing to invest into him when he's 18 and then whenever he's 22, whenever whenever he's 28. Tell me how how you tell me how you ensure that you're not gonna lose touch with the kid.
Speaker 5:Take a look good look at the young man that came through Lake Hollins, Jeremiah Williams. Back in 2003, 2004, I showed him that I cared. Mhmm. And and I think that's number 1. Once once the kids know that we love them, we care for them, they begin to trust us.
Speaker 5:And then another piece is creating environments to where they they wanna be around you. So he was a part of my, you know, basketball team in addition to my my history classes, and we used to hang out after school. So once he began to trust me, and then I'm in creating these environments where, you know, he and his friends can come hang out and, you know, we can we can kinda enjoy ourselves as as young men, that's where that that that foundation was laid. And then once he transitioned on out of the the Richardson area, just keeping in contact with him through whether it's email, because I don't even think text message was was truly in in in effect back then, but just kinda keeping in contact. You know, if I if I was to see his mom in the store, just say, hey.
Speaker 5:How's Jeremiah doing? She would relay the message to, you think, 10 years down the road, this kid reaches out to me and say, hey, mister Anthony. How's it going? And and that was through social media, but I think the foundation is laid when he was a 13, 14 year old.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Just, you know, getting earning that trust and then, like I say, holding him accountable. But just showing at the end of the day, showing him that I I truly cared, which is why I can pick up the phone now and that that mentor relationship is just still there, but it changes because he's like, he has a family just like I do and and and and, you know, has kids and a wife. But the foundation starts when we are working with those kids as 13 and 14 year olds.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. Man, like, I I think one thing that that I keep on hearing you say is that you you hold kids accountable. And I know, for me, there's a tendency for that for that to be a super hard thing to do because I'm fearful that I'm gonna lose connection. I'm fearful that he's not gonna like me. I'm scared that I'm gonna hurt his feelings.
Speaker 4:So can you just kinda share with us how how you hold kids accountable in a way that makes them feel loved and feel cared for?
Speaker 5:It's a lot of hard work, especially when we're dealing with with teenagers, but it it goes back to, I think, that that trust factor. And a lot of the young men that we work with don't have that positive male figure or father figure in their lives. So not not saying we're trying to become that, but we're just trying to become something positive in their lives. But we let them know from the onset, we're gonna bag you a 100% when you're doing the right thing. We're gonna we're gonna care for you.
Speaker 5:We're gonna love on you. But when you are in the wrong, be man enough to admit it and then accept whatever consequence comes behind it. And and when they know that we show them 99% of the time because they do they do great things, we're gonna show them that we care. We're gonna have their back. But the one time you don't, we're gonna hold you accountable.
Speaker 5:And and and and I think a lot of it, especially with me, I have the same demeanor. You know, if a kid does something that's that's against the way we do things that impact 1, I never raise my voice. I never, in a sense, what the key is called, disrespect or talk down to them. Mhmm. We have a conversation about the mistake you made.
Speaker 5:Then we we put some things in place to make sure you don't repeat the mistake. And then after we have that conversation, we go back to building each other up as men. So we don't we don't we don't we don't come from a place of judgment, and we don't harbor on the mistakes because even at my age now, I still make mistakes. And I'm able to be transparent with those young men. So that that kinda makes it easier to to hold them accountable.
Speaker 5:Now oftentimes, while we're in the midst of the conversation, they may not like us.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:But we're able to walk away from the table, and they understand why we need to hold them accountable and why we have to be hard on them with certain things.
Speaker 4:So so can you just kinda share with me how you how you set the tone, how you create an environment for for these kids to feel safe, for these kids to feel like, hey, you know, from the time school starts to the time that school ends, I'm gonna act one way. But whenever I get in with mister Anthony, whenever I get in with Impact 1, it's a different environment. Can you just kinda talk about what you do to set them up for success?
Speaker 5:I think the key thing and my wife and I always have these conversations. But as adults, I think the greatest mistake that we make when we deal with kids, we don't listen. And since day 1, when I walked into Lake Highlands Junior High up until where I'm at now, before I even even speak in regards to a student, always stop and I listen. Because this generation has a lot to say. So once I kinda once the kids know that, hey.
Speaker 5:You know, he's he's he's going to listen to us, that kinda sets that that environment to where, you know, like I said, we can we can truly have that that impact on their on their lives. So, I mean, listening is is huge. I mean, that that that's a big part of it.
Speaker 4:I mean, man, you've been a teacher or a principal for how long now?
Speaker 5:This is year 19.
Speaker 4:Year 19? Can you just kinda share with us just, like, maybe some of the main things that you've learned trying to work with kids? And tell us what works and what you thought would work that ended up not working. And just any any practical advice that you might give someone who honestly doesn't have a lot of experience working with kids, specifically kids who kinda come from some of the same environments that our kids come from.
Speaker 5:I think number 1, we have to meet the the students where they are. You know? Because a lot of the kids that we we work with are kinda rough around the edges. So just number 1, just meeting the student where they are without judgment. Because the kids if they feel like they're being judged or they pick up on what the kids call you you're being fake, that's gonna turn them off.
Speaker 5:They're not gonna respect you. So we we have to kinda go back to what I was saying. We have to listen to them. We definitely have to have patience. We have to meet them where they are, but then we have to be consistent.
Speaker 5:Because if we tell a kid we're gonna do something and we don't do it, they lose respect for us. So consistency is huge. And I and I and I like I said, I pride myself on being consistent with the kids. Like I said, if I if I tell you I'm gonna do something, I'll make it my business to to to get it done. And that kinda that kinda wins them over.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, like, I have found that I mean, whenever I try to build a relationship with a kid, it's almost like for the 1st season, it's like they're gonna do everything that they can to see if you are who you say you are. You know, they they might not they might not give you the answer that you want. They might, you know, kinda start to be quiet some.
Speaker 4:And what they're doing is they're trying to test you, and they're trying to see if they really can put their faith in you. Right? And, and then that is just so important. Can can a kid believe that you are who you say you are and that you are gonna do what you say that you're gonna do? So that's awesome, man.
Speaker 4:Well, cool. Well, do you got any stories about about mentoring, whether it's in your own personal life or with Impact 1 that could be encouraging to all of our listeners?
Speaker 5:Oh, man. It's I have a 1,000. Yeah. Right. And and I I share 2 2 quick ones just based on time.
Speaker 5:And the first one is going back to kinda what I stated, we have to meet the kids where they are. My first first year in Garland, I had a young man named Phil. Phil was what we call rough around the edges. He was he was doing illegal things, and I I'll I'll leave it at that. And he got sent off to alternative school.
Speaker 5:Now before he got sent off, I had never really met Theo. I saw him in the hallways. We we would speak and just in past, but never really had a conversation. So he goes off to alternative school for 30 days. And then after he left and I found out, you know, the reason that he got into, you know, trouble, I said, I'm a be intentional in making my business when this young man comes back to build a connection.
Speaker 5:So we normally get emails when kids come back from alternative schools saying, hey. Phil will be back on such and such date, such and such time. So I was waiting for Phil in the front office. Now he didn't know me or anything about me. Just in passing, I would say, you know, what's up?
Speaker 5:Because I always speak to kids. And the first face that he saw when he got back from alternative school was mister Anthony standing to greet him in the office. And what I did, I didn't mention the reason that he was he was he was kicked out of school. We didn't even talk about that. I just say, hey, Phil.
Speaker 5:I know you don't know me. My name is mister Anthony. I just wanna welcome you back. If you need anything, you know where to find me. And I left it at that.
Speaker 5:Few days later, you know, Phil would just come up and say, hey, mister Anthony. I I appreciate what you said. Nobody has ever, I guess he's never felt that from an adult in his life. I was the first to kinda not judge him, but just kinda just check on him. You know, let him know if he needed anything, he can come to me.
Speaker 5:So from there, I began to kinda mentor and coach Phil, you know, just because he was a senior, and I said, hey. You know, we need to come up with a plan to get you across that stage. So I worked with Phil probably the last two and a half months of school, and we got him across that stage. And I still have the picture, in my office of Phil and I shaking hands, and then, you know, he's in his cap and gown, you know, at the at the at the graduation down in Garland. And it's things like that to why I do what I do.
Speaker 5:You know? Just being able to see Phil, he got in some issues, build that connection with him, and then help him achieve one of his goals, which was to to graduate from high school. I mean, that was a a a great feeling. So I I think it's important just as we as we work with kids, we we have to meet them where they are, hold them accountable minus the judgment. And then the the last story, this is I had to I had to give since we're in the Lake Highlands area, I had to get one from Lake Holland.
Speaker 5:I think it was 2,005 after hurricane Katrina happened back in my home state of Louisiana. We had a large number of kids moved to the Texas area.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So I think that may have been my 3rd year of teaching. So we get we get about 30 New Orleans kids come down, and then, you know, our Texas kids are looking at these kids coming in the door like, Texas, this is our this is our tier tour. This is our home court. But the New Orleans kids are trying to come in and establish respect. So probably the first maybe 2 or 3 weeks of school, I mean, we just had multiple incidents to groups on the verge of fighting to where one day, you know, we had a big brawl in the cafeteria, and then maybe by the end of the week, what I call the ringleaders, you know, from Texas, Louisiana, these 2 young men young men got into a, a physical fight right outside my room.
Speaker 5:So one of the guys was was arrested, but I had been working with the both guys when they you know, when school first started. After the New Orleans kids got here, I would work with Devonte who was from New Orleans, and then Jerome was from Texas. So I'd already started planting that seed, what I like to call it. But they get into a physical altercation, and they get sent home for 3 days. So I'm thinking, okay.
Speaker 5:They're going home for 3 days. Nobody actually set these kids down to have a conversation on why they were fighting or just to hear from the kids. So they come back to school on a Friday, and on my conference period. I find out where Devonte is, find out where Jerome is, and here's here's my strategy. I go get one kid.
Speaker 5:I say, hey. Can I see Jerome? He comes down to the classroom. I say, Jerome, give me 2 minutes. I need to go down to the office.
Speaker 5:But I'm actually going to get Devonte and say, Devonte, hey, man. I need you to go down to my room. I'll be there in about 2 minutes. I purposely wanted those guys to get there before me. Alright?
Speaker 5:So when I knew that they were both sitting in there, I kinda hung out in the office, and then I walked into the classroom. And the first thing I said, you guys really don't hate each other. Because if you did, when I woulda walked into my classroom, you guys woulda had each other's by the by the throat and the shirt. So number 1, that shows me that probably what you guys were fighting on, if we can just sit down as men and kinda communicate, we can avoid any any further issues. So I kinda had a a mini mediation with the guys, and we were able to come to a agreement that we can walk out of here and coexist.
Speaker 5:And the power in that is that, number 1, they had enough respect for my classroom, even though they had just got into a fight 3 days earlier, not to disrespect me. That's that respect and that trust. And what I what I mentioned is for is planting seeds. And then number 2, they were able to walk out of that room, and I purposely timed it so them to walk out together kinda chit chatting with the hallways full. Because then that sends a message to the general population that these 2 guys had just gotten to a fight, but now they're coming out and they're kinda shaking hands and they're cool.
Speaker 5:So that completely changed the culture that year after we had all those kids moving from New Orleans because they're thinking, okay. Well, if these 2 guys are supposed to be the ringleaders can coexist and get along, why can't we?
Speaker 4:So, I
Speaker 5:mean, I I I definitely love that story. And like I say, it's I always tell a story anywhere I go because we have to sit down and and and, like I say, hear from these kids and give them, I call it, conflict resolution skills. And that's what they were lacking, but I was able to sit down with them, and we didn't have any other issues to reference school.
Speaker 4:That's awesome, Ron. Hey, well, if someone wants to learn more about Impact One Mentoring, why don't you tell them how to do that?
Speaker 5:They can reach us on Facebook. Just do a a quick search, Impact 1 Mentoring. And then also, if you, you know, just want any information, wanna know some of the events that we'll be hosting this summer, they can shoot me an email at impact 1, mentoring@gmail.com. And then we're also on Twitter, which is my personal page. If you just do a search for Ron Anthony, I'll come up.
Speaker 5:But like I said, we got a lot of great things coming up this summer.
Speaker 4:That's awesome. And, guys, that's Impact 1, the number 1. So thank you so much for your time, Ron. Sure do appreciate you, man, and I wish you guys nothing but the best.
Speaker 5:Anytime. Thank you.
Speaker 4:So if you guys missed all that awesome stuff from mister Ron Anthony, you missed out. But if you take away one thing from today's podcast, let it be be this, you can mentor.