At the end of the day, I guess it is about is finding multiple ways to engage children. In a community where there is so much pulling you in so many different directions, helping a child find something that is worthy of being called a passion is not an easy task. In doing the story for the Ozanam After School Program I found that there are people who really care about that. They have found a passion of making a young person attracted to something other than what the streets have to offer.

The Hill District in Pittsburgh is where I spent a lot of time growing up but it’s not where I lived and I never called it home. I lived in an area that was just about a suburban as you can get. An area called Sewickley. Sewickley was where many of the men who accumulated wealth in the mid 1800’s from the steel industries in Pittsburgh would have their summer homes. So that what many people think about when the town is brought up. But for a black adolescence growing up in the early 1990’s, the Hill District was where I had to go. I began to excel in basketball and I found the city players gave me stronger competition than anywhere else. But they had something else too. A grittiness that I couldn’t quite understand. They played the game with almost a “joyful anger” that I could not relate to but felt I needed as well. I desired it. I begin to understand it was because of this life they lived. Basketball was a means to get away from it all and let it out. It kept them sane and away from other dangerous outlets. Basketball “saved” them.

Programs like Ozanam Basketball league and their After School Program creates a place for young black man especially to do this. I recently began to understand how important it is to show black men who care. Men who are willing to put in time to tell the younger generation that they have a choice. They have a choice in a neighborhood where the statistics are stacked against them. It has been extremely beneficial to work in the role of a storyteller for this kind of work. Finding where the true message lies and fleshing it out is somewhat of an honor from my perspective. As a Game Changer, we are giving the pen, pad and the lens to bring that life.