62 graduate Young Men Inc. summer camp

INDIANAPOLIS - While some youth were running wild late at night in the streets of downtown Indianapolis this summer, fighting and shooting and killing each other, the campers of Young Men Inc. were home reflecting on lessons learned and preparing for the week ahead in Reverend Malachi Walker's church basement.




On Sunday, Young Men Inc. held its end-of-summer awards and recognition banquet at the JTV Hill Center on the east side and honored 62 campers and their families for a successful summer that saw only a couple dropouts and, more importantly, no deaths and no arrests of any of Walker's young campers.




Hundreds filled tables on the gymnasium floor and were served lunch while awaiting awards as campers who graduated returned to show their appreciation for everything they learned from the program.




"I was literally ready to go into school and just needed more mentors. Needs more male figures. Needed to learn how to be a man. Needed to learn how to grow emotionally, mentally, intellectually, just all the things, so this program really helped with that," said Jarrod Hubbard, 24.




He returns to the basement of Great Commission Church of God every summer to assist the pastor while also working in Lawrence Township Schools and the Center for Leadership and Development before working on his MBA this fall.




"Confidence, affirmation is a whole lot. Some of us just need an extra push. Some of us aren't sure of ourselves when we come and then after we leave after nine weeks of constantly being berated with the fact that you are somebody and succeed, after those nine weeks you believe it."




Hubbard, like so many of the campers, was enrolled in the camp because his mother said there was no male mentorship in his house growing up.




"I knew there was no man in the house," said Benita Cummings. "Dad wasn't in the house. I couldn't teach him how to be a man so I had to send him around where they could teach him and show him things I couldn't show him."




Hubbard came from a foundation of strong women who were focused on his development and survival where many of his peers lost their way.




"I think about that all the time," said Grandmother Betty Cummings. "We're so happy when Reverend Malachi came into our lives and we were able to get it because we were in a neighborhood at 42^nd and Post Road and we been saying young boys have to work and come home and he was very nice and respectful as a kid but we didn't want him to fall into that other side."




Hubbard said he utilizes the lessons learned a decade ago in the church basement to reach the teenagers he works with today.




"Continuing to affirm them even in what they're dealing with outside of the schoolhouse, absolutely, you can succeed, regardless of whatever you're going through at home, at school, in the community, or whatever."





via: https://fox59.com/news/62-graduate-young-men-inc-summer-camp/