DeJuan Mayberry (left), laughs with his mentor, Kevin Maxville, as they walk down the hall of Monroe Middle School.
A local group is searching for more adults to be mentors to teens
Drugs. Gang activity. Lack of parental involvement.
Together it's what Kevin Maxville calls the "plight of north Tulsa." It's where Maxville lives, where his kids go to school and where he's working to make a better raising ground for children.
"I had a commitment to north Tulsa," Maxville said in the library of Monroe Middle School, where he is a parent volunteer. "I could not go on without doing my part, being an influence and giving back."
Students flock toward Maxville when he walks the hallways of this north Tulsa school, but there is one quiet teenager with whom he shares a different relationship.
Maxville is a mentor to 15-year-old DeJuan Mayberry through the North Tulsa Youth Program, which pairs at-risk youth with responsible adults to be role models.
"He helps me stay out of trouble," DeJuan said of his mentor.
The program started more than two years ago to give north Tulsa youths, many of whom come from lower-income and single-parent families, someone to spend quality time with and look up to.
The concept can work. Studies show that teenagers who have a positive role model make better grades and have higher self-esteem. That's not the problem.
Getting enough adults to volunteer as role models is.
About 40 mentors show up for the more than 100 youths in the North Tulsa Youth Program, which was developed by Youth Services of Tulsa and is funded by a contract from the state's Office of Juvenile Affairs.
Many students currently in the program, which concentrates on 12- to 18-year-olds, don't have mentors and are juggled among the staff members and others who try to account for the lack of volunteers.
"When I came on board, I had this crazy dream ... to have 150 mentors because we know that if we are really going to serve kids we need responsible adults who are willing to model and spend one-on-one time with these kids," said Orville Baul, the program's coordinator.
"A lot of the time, we find ourselves in the community with the families 24/7. You know, whatever it takes, we don't mind, but that's why our mentors are so important."
Mentors should be 18 years or older (but college students younger than that are accepted), live in the Tulsa area and pass a background check. Sixteen hours of training are required, and ideally, the mentor would interact with the youth face-to-face twice a week and on the phone once a week.
"We're a prevention program first," Baul said. "These kids have a lot of promise, but they don't have the day-to-day support, and that's where the mentors come in."
Kolby Brown doesn't have much extra time with working nights at Frito-Lay and going to school full time at Tulsa Community College during the day. But the 21-year-old said it's in his heart to help young people.
Brown has been a mentor for about four months to Anthony, a teenage boy who goes to Monroe.
"Sometimes it's hard to do, but I have to stay committed because that's what he (Anthony) needs in his life right now," Brown said. "I have to stay committed. Like they say, hard work pays off. This is going to pay off in the future."
The youths in north Tulsa have many needs, said Jim Walker, executive director of Youth Services.
"The poverty level in that area is incredible," he said. "It's something that most of the Tulsa community is just not able to look at. What these kids and their moms see in the day-to-day is immense. We're trying to link with these kids in every way we can."
DeJuan joined the youth program when it began, and back then the teenage son of a single mom had an "anti-adult" attitude and a real reason to have it, said Ruford Henderson, Youth Services gang outreach worker.
"Today he's one of those kids who has advanced more than any of the kids in our program," Henderson said. "He's one of our regulars."
As mentors are sparse, Henderson has spent a lot of time with DeJuan. Time is what it takes.
"We say these kids are at-risk. Well, at risk for what?" Baul said. "At risk for gang participation, truancy, poor school performance. Because they don't have the support. We have a lot of single parents for sure, and a lot of absent parents. (These children) are growing up in an area with a lot of violence and a lot of gang activity."
What these young people haven't had enough of is consistency, Walker said.
"They haven't gone to school consistently, and their moms may be wonderful women and mothers, but if they're working two or three jobs to try and support their family, the consistency of them being home is less," he said.
"We're not saying (to parents) 'You're not doing this right, so we're going to take your kids and fix them for you.' It is this whole concept of 'Let us be a part of your support network.' "
It was past noon and students at Monroe trickled from their classrooms and began to line up for lunch. It was Maxville's call to work the hallways.
"Hopefully people will read this and step up to the plate along with us and come together to help our youth," he said.
Leigh Woosley 581-8465
