Chris Blackwood uses entrepreneurial experience to mentor at-risk youth

Brown has known Blackwood for about a year and a half – ever since Blackwood’s employment at the Boys and Girls Club as a youth program coordinator – and he was quickly convinced by Blackwood’s devotion to his cause.

This devotion stems from Blackwood’s childhood and youth.

“I [remember] all of the positive social impacts that my mentors or the youth workers back in the day had on me, coming from my adolescent years,” Blackwood explains referring to the mentors who became pseudo father figures for his single-parent household.

It was basketball that kept Blackwood in high school and got him accepted into Concordia University. “That’s when my mentality changed,” says Blackwood. He escaped from “the dope way” of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood that he grew up in, and moved to an atmosphere full of successful young students and new mentors.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people,” declares Brown, “and I think that [Blackwood] is a very strong, passionate young man… I see success in the future for him.”

This success has already started with a little assistance from Brown, whom Blackwood calls his “more up and coming mentor.” Brown, who had learnt about the SSE-O before its inauguration through a close connection, thought “[Blackwood’s] concept would just be perfect” for the school.

Even before this referral, however, Blackwood had a program in place to start implementing his love for mentorship. He had two programs, in fact: one for girls (Prettier Than Pink) and one for boys (the Gentleman Hats).

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“As I got more comfortable with being a youth worker, that’s when it hit me. Kids between the age of 13 and 19… didn’t have anything teaching them about maintaining their grades, maintaining family stability, employment, or being an active community member,” explains Blackwood. [/pullquote]

And yet, in 2011, these programs were still mostly an idea for Blackwood, he admits. “It was very grassrootish; I used to do it out at my friend’s garage shop. I would bring in a couple youth, talk to them, keep them under my wing, and just hope for the best.”