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Chris Blackwood uses entrepreneurial experience to mentor at-risk youth
A graduate of Ontario’s School for Social Entrepreneurship applies his skills to youth mentorship
By Viviane Fairbank, staff writer
[pullquote]“[I’ve had] plenty of mentors,” recalls Chris Blackwood. “…I realized that being around successful people would eventually make me be successful.”[/pullquote]
His statement certainly rings true, because now, at 30 years old, Blackwood has become a mentor himself, turning it into his profession (a registered nonprofit one, at that).
In May of 2013, Blackwood graduated from Ontario’s School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE-O), located in Regent Park, Toronto. He was one of the first students to complete the Ontario edition of the program, the first Canadian addition to a network of schools spread across England and Australia.
The school, which officially launched in June of 2012, aims to “catalyze social change and empower communities” by training community leaders and teaching them how to follow successful social ventures.
Applicants to the school are not required to have an academic background; they simply need to have a good idea, and to have the drive to implement it. Blackwood, along with his plan to “[provide] youth with adequate mentoring to prepare for life,” fulfilled the requirements and, after a final interview, was accepted as a participant.
Ironically, it was one of Blackwood’s mentors, his current employer Rayon Brown, who initially directed Blackwood to the SSE-O.
“I told him about the [SSE-O] and he told me about his passion to start his own non-profit organization, and that was my passion as well so we decided to work very closely together to get something off the ground,” says Brown, who works as the community director for the Boys and Girls Club of Weston-Mt. Dennis.
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).
[pullquote]
“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.”
According to Blackwood, SSE-O helped him mold his idea into a more “presentable” and “perfected” mechanism, complete with a social model and a curriculum. After graduation, Blackwood had inaugurated an organization called Helping Neighbourhoods Implement Change Through Mentoring, which took the two Gentleman Hats and Prettier than Pink clubs under its wing.
Blackwood isn’t the only one to have noticed his improvement over the course of his SSE-O studies. Brown has seen Blackwood’s entrepreneurial skills drastically improve over the duration of the eight-month course.
[pullquote]“When I first met Chris, he was just a young man who was passionate about what he wanted to do,” Brown explains. “[Now], he’s learned the necessary tools to bring him to the next plateau.”[/pullquote]
Mostly, according to Brown, Blackwood learned how to be a successful businessman and an able people-person.
For Blackwood, half the success of a social entrepreneur has to do with “having a great team.” Part of Blackwood’s appreciation for the SSE-O stems from the many useful connections that he was able to make through the school.
Blackwood’s social entrepreneurship “success story of the moment” comes from one of those connections.
His strong belief in “stories of change” led Blackwood to start hosting professional development forums, introducing youth to successful guest speakers who come from at-risk communities. These were originally held at the Black Creek Community Health Centre once a month.
“Then we had a guest speaker at SSE-O… Jeff Dennis… I guess he found what I was doing kind of interesting, and he’s a golf member at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club, so he made the connection for me to have a meeting with the general manager,” Blackwood explains.
A meeting turned into another meeting, and soon, Blackwood began to host his professional development forums at the golf club. “Now I have youth that [have] never been to a golf club ever actually coming in to a golf club, dressed up formally and listening to guest speakers, in such a prestigious place… Hopefully that can shape their mentality to do better.”
Blackwood’s mentorship programs do seem to be working. Though his programs started less than two years ago, he has already become a prominent leader for several youth.
Harpreet Gill, a 25-year-old woman who was raised in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto, was one of the first members of Blackwood’s Prettier Than Pink program.
Gill asserts that her involvement with the program since 2011 has helped her with several different aspects of her life, from professional to personal, and guided her to return to Ryerson University, where she just finished the second year of her social work degree.
“[Blackwood] is doing a whole lot of different things that I haven’t seen in a really long time in our community,” says Gill. “…His whole goal with this mentorship program is for underprivileged youth to have the same experience as upper and middle class youth. He’s done a tremendous job.”
After almost two years with Prettier Than Pink, Gill has been inspired to start her own social entrepreneurship venture.
“I haven’t started yet, but I’ve been helping Chris a lot with his work, I’ve been doing a lot of mentorship,” she explains. “My future goal is to start my own [program], helping youth who are incarcerated reintegrate back into society.”
Blackwood’s future goal, on the other hand, is to establish HNIC in all of the 13 priority neighbourhoods of Toronto. Currently, the organization is present in two areas: Jane and Finch and West and Mt. Dennis.
Blackwood describes his ideal progress for the next five years: “HNIC will be established, and it will earn the respect of all of the funders to provide afterschool programming for youth, March break camps for youth, [and] summer camps for youth.”
For now, HNIC can be found on their newly-made website, www.helpnic.org, and on their twitter at @hnic_mentorship.
Viviane Fairbank is a writer, photographer, and willing university student, desperately waiting to travel around the world. She can be found at http://vivianefairbank.weebly.com.
Sources
Photo courtesy to Become a CPA Blog, dal.ca, Carleton.ca, Inspirational Devotions & More by Tim Burt
Boys and Girls Club of Weston Mount Dennis
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