The lack of role models for urban youth is a chronic problem, and Craig Muhammad believes he has an answer. Detroit native Muhammad, a social worker by training, was working for the state in a youth-detention facility when he realized that the world outside was scarier for the inmates than the institution itself.
"The lack of fear of these places was causing young men to do things to be sent back," he says. "It inspired me to do something, not just criticize.''
He and a partner started Young Men in Transition in 2004 as a non-profit organization devoted to mentoring teenage boys "and just providing a safe place for them for a few hours after school.'' The larger goal: improving high school graduation rates.
The effort has been so successful, says Muhammad, that contributions and government funding have increased. The group has a $500,000 annual budget and employs a dozen mentors, as well as volunteers. "Many of these boys have never had any positive adult relationships in their lives. We of like minds attempt to see the best of things," he says, "to see opportunity where others see decay and chaos."
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