Lamar Banks grew
up in South Central LA in an area that was highly gang-oriented. He like a large number of young men from that
community never knew his father and was raised by a very tough and strong-handed
mother and grandma. Lamar, at 13 years
of age found himself being influenced to join a gang in order to survive. So he and the guys in the neighborhood that
he grew up with decided to form a “set” called Fo Block. (A set is a subset of
a gang). Lamar being a big, strong kid
was designate to be the enforcer for
the gang. What he
and the others weren’t told is that when you are a part of a gang, it doesn’t
make you safer. Instead it does the
opposite. It puts a target on your back
and puts you in greater danger. It was
around this time that he also found out about YMC’s mentoring program through
some of his friends who had gotten involved with their work.
When Lamar started YMC’s mentoring program, he was not doing
well, barely interested in school or even attending much. YMC found him a mentor that was the perfect
match. They started breaking his shell. There were some improvement but the peer
pressure that kept him involved in the gang was a huge roadblock. Then at one of YMC’s yearly boy’s initiations
on the Big Bear Mountains, part of the Fo Block gang came up with various
weapons and were gang banging on the other youth. Because of Tony and YMC’s deep, powerful and
transformation work that they do at this 4-day youth initiation which supplements
the mentoring work that they do on a daily basis with their youth, the gang
ended on the mountain that weekend.
There was much follow up work to do when they came back to LA so these
youth could keep their promise to each other and their community but with YMC’s
help, Lamar and the other members of “fo block” did just that.
Now Lamar became a deeper part of YMC’s community and
started really getting into the mentoring.
He did better in school, yet still had a lot of catching up to do. He felt really proud of himself because he
was making it although it was challenging.
The day came when he was finally graduating from High School. His family was so proud. They had even bought him a new suit to
wear. Then a couple of days before the
ceremony, he was informed by the school that he would not be walking the stage
with the rest of his classmates. He had
not passed the California High School Exit Exam and they did not get the
results for him to retake until now.
Lamar was devastated because he had worked so hard.
When Lamar told YMC about his situation, they decided to
create a graduation ceremony for him because they wanted to honor how hard he
had worked. They had seen his
commitment, his transformation and were proud of him. So they told Lamar of their plans. They asked him to choose a restaurant that he
and his family would like to go to after the YMC graduation ceremony for
him. He picked Cheese Cake Factory at
the Grove. So on that day, they headed
to the restaurant only expecting his immediate family. However, when they got there, not only had
his family turned out, but at least 20 people from his community showed up as
well. For them, Lamar represented a
young man who had made it. He was an
example to those people of what was possible – a symbol of hope in a community
where most don’t make it.
YMC ended the evening with their traditional “Gift Circle”
where each person expressed the gift they saw in Lamar as his family watched
with tears of pride in their eyes. To
this day, Lamar said that this was the best night of his life. He later took the California HS Exit Exam, passed
and went on to East LA College for 2 years where he played football. Lamar has stayed a part of the YMC mentoring
community, helping mentor other youth and become Coach Banks for a local youth
football team. Just this year, he got
accepted and transferred to the University of Hawaii where he is studying
Kinesiology and plans to be an Athletic Performance Trainer.
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