INDIANAPOLIS — The founder of a local mentoring program for troubled youth has a huge celebration planned on Mother's Day weekend.
The man behind New Breed Of Youth, or New B.O.Y., Mentoring has created an event to "show love" to kids who need it.
The free event is Saturday at noon and will include an outdoor boxing rink set up outside the New Boy headquarters on Crawfordsville Road. The goal is to show off some of the young people in Indianapolis who are on the right track.
New Boy participant Julius Beverly opened up to 13News about how the program has made a difference in his life.
"I have been on a journey where I have had to believe more just in me," Julius Beverly said.
That journey for Julius Beverly has not been easy. But now at 18-years-old, he's one of the students in the mentoring program on track and ready to share with other teens who are at risk of getting into serious trouble.
"I am not on probation or in any type of trouble whatsoever. But I would rather be a mentor to people and programs like this to let them know like we don't have a pick up a gun and shoot him down," said Julius Beverly.
Guns Down Gloves Up is the ongoing theme for New Boy Mentoring that uses the art of boxing to teach discipline and accountability.
"Our program is built on personal accountability," said Kareem Hines.
Hines started the program in 2007 to rescue young people in trouble. His passion for helping troubled youth is based on his relationship with his own mentor when he lived in Harlem, New York. His mentor relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana, and Hines followed not far behind.
The connection with his mentor strengthened Kareem's relationship with his father who knew it would be a sacrifice allowing his son to move out of state. Now, Hines is paying it forward to young people who might otherwise never get their lives on track after trouble with the law.
"A lot of them are on juvenile probation or they are in a situation where they have been referred to us from the courts or the department of child services," said Hines.
Hines uses boxing as a distraction and it's working for people like Julius Beverly who says it's changed him and his direction in life.
"It's really therapeutic," Beverly said. "It brings a different character out of you that other people may not see."
Participants are required to complete schoolwork here in the New Boy's computer classroom. Still, Hines makes it a point to offer recreation like playing video games.
"We work under the guidance of a therapeutic model called 'the 5 stages of change.' So, we really meet the young men where they are at," Hines said.
That's another reason Hines hopes for a huge public turnout for the free Mother's Day weekend boxing event.
"So instead of them ... just to be working out, we wanted to make it a showcase," Hines said. "So now they are working out with a purpose for six to seven weeks. Then the Youth Boxing showcase that we have coming up on May 8th, that's the culmination."
The Guns Down Gloves Up event is open to the public. It starts at noon on Saturday, May 8, 2021, at New Boy Mentoring, 5610 Crawfordsville Road, Indianapolis, Indiana.