Miriam: Do you see poverty affecting your program in either way?

Neil:

Poverty? Yes. I mean, again, I could only say anecdotes because that’s what sticks out in my mind most. One of my participants Rachid, that we had this time at James Lyng, he would actually talk about how walking home in his neighborhood, he had young women asking him if he wanted a lap dance. This kid is 14 years old, and these women are asking him if he wanted a lap dance, and he’s come to the program asking, “What’s a lap dance?” We would have to explain this stuff to him. Being that a lot of them come from areas that are more poverty stricken, they deal with stuff like that – like prostitutes on the corner, or violence.

Tivon was scared to come into class because two of his friends had been shot earlier that month, and he was afraid to even go to school. These are real issues that they deal with all the time.

Miriam: Do you think that affects their attendance at your program?

Neil: It did in those instances, for sure.

Miriam: More than, say, their girlfriend wanting them to come out and look at shoes ?

Neil:

Maybe not as much, no. I don’t think it was more, I think that Tivon’s case was an isolated incident in that respect. It’s a lot more likely for one of the participants to not show up because they’ve got to go to Footlocker and buy a new pair of kicks! That’s a lot more realistic, and more common for that to be the reason.

There is one participant in the class of 12 kids that is going through that – that’s still a pretty significant contribution, if you look at it statistically. If we were going to say one in every twelve kids is directly or indirectly implicated in gun violence, or any violence, that’s still pretty significant. I think it does speak to the demographic that we are working with, for sure.