my parents taught me about life and life
told me about my parents my beautiful
mother Selena hunter gave birth and we
have the young age of 17 years old in
Washington DC her mother was a scholar
she graduated in the top 5% of her class
and she did not afford tuition
scholarships to stay at home sooner she
raised me alongside with my father
Edward document now as you can imagine
there were many challenges that my
parents faces being teenage parents and
some of these challenges were financial
burdens receiving negative criticism not
just from trans or outsiders but as well
as some of our family members now my
mother and father grew up very
differently my mother grew up in a very
religious bit of a household my
grandfather’s been a deacon for forever
and when she decided to make an adult
decision to get pregnant my grandmother
which is very stirring back in her day
decided to for my mother that you can no
longer stay there so my mother had to go
stay with my aunt that which is Brenda
great-aunt better known as our honey
honey didn’t get her name from liking
the quit honey in 30 she got her name
from her genuine warm the loving spirit
there where my mother and father resided
at a young age our honey and my
great-grandmother throny great and they
took them under the wing they invested
into them and they wanted him to be
successful parents my mom tells me
stories about have everyone thought she
was gonna fail she’s gonna be another
negative statistics and things of that
nature but she utilized that to be an
effective parent and the things that and
the things that I want to talk about
today is that I grew up in Washington DC
like many other early city faced a lot
of struggles participating a lot of
youth development programs from the
local rec centers
Church the schools all the different
things that tons of resources and my
friends participate in these activities
as well but everyone’s path didn’t go as
planned
I lost the host of friends to homicide
incarceration substance abuse and either
suicide as I’m going to get older I
started to notice the difference and my
friends and my upbringing as I started
to mentor youth I started to notice that
a lot of youth were lacking a parent or
parents that were fully invested into
their future and this is why I firmly
believe that we need some vegetable and
parent development to aid in the
cultivation youth development so when we
talk about the household many years ago
the traditional household was no
the norm in our society where you have
wife husband kids from Eric possibly a
better socioeconomic status the children
or the child in house has two adults to
look up his role models and things like
that and this innocence was used to be
the norm in our society but things have
changed
we’ve gone from the non traditional
household belong from traditional
households to the non traditional
household and a non traditional
household can be a single mother a
single father or maybe a single Guardian
who decided to raise a child now through
this not just a non traditional
household that’s taking place today
there are many factors that have led to
the non-traditional household but one of
the factors that has led to the non
traditional household is mass
incarceration now before I get into mass
incarceration just to give you back rock
backdrop of some statistics is that over
the past 50 years those was adding in
the home only with their mother they
increased from 8 per at 8 percent to 24
percent and today one in four children
are being raised in her father’s
household so this is a picture right
here of Tony Lewis jr. the little boy
and Tony Louis senior tony is a mentor
big brother to me means a big community
activist in DC he helps return the city
to come home to get their life together
get some jobs things of that nature he
has a book out the whole nine yards
that’s Tony little Singh and his father
funny little thing it was locked up in
1989 and he’s Vince and he’s still in
prison he’s been there for life for
nonviolent drug offense and with Tony’s
father was arrested he always tells a
story that when his father went to jail
he didn’t only lose his father he
actually lost his mother as well because
mother started Supplemental illness and
he says as his data she has not been the
same since his father’s been arrested so
in Tony’s case the odds are stacked
against them usually in situations like
this and especially the neighborhood
that he was raised in in DC usually
would lead to going down the wrong path
of maybe following his father’s
footsteps or becoming a victim of gun
violence is something for something like
that but Tony also speaks about the
prominent men that played a role in his
life who were headed their own
households but some of them weren’t in
his own households now this goes to the
saying that Tony’s turned out amazing
he’s amazing person he’s turned out
great he’s doing a lot of great things
for the community and for society but
this goes to show you that it takes a
village to raise a child and
still firmly believe that today it takes
a village to raise a child but there’s a
totally difference from back finis to
today in some way that’s why well we
have to look at today we’re in a society
where social media has a heavy influence
on everyone and especially young
children children are heavily influenced
by the different things that they’re
saying in the media and things like that
so when you talk about the village today
this is why I believe that continuous
learning is important for parents to be
able to have these tough conversations
some parents may not know what a hashtag
is some parents may not know about
Instagram and Facebook and all these
different things that I know children
are getting exposed to I even catch
myself when I go to my house and some of
the things that my cousins are talking
about it sometimes unbelievable but it’s
kind of hard to kind of prevent them
from getting access to the Internet is
kind of run everything but when you have
parents that have Katinas learning
opportunities to learn how to guide
their children another thing is when you
think about cyber bullying and bullying
in the schools having these tough
conversations teaching them financial
literacy and things like that
I think casillas learning is great
myself I’m in human resources major here
at Towson University and we talked a lot
about employee engagement we talk a lot
about employee satisfaction and the
class that I have to go through after
this is employee health and wellness so
when I do become the vice president of a
human resources department I am going to
make it make it a priority to have
parent on parent development implemented
in the workplace so to kind of go back
when I talk about the single parent home
if you have a single parent home nine
times out of ten a mother that father
may have to work long hours may have to
work two or three jobs and this can take
away from that quality time of investing
in their child so from HR perspective
why not invest in the current that way
we can have them making the impact in
the office as well as outside of the
office and this can help society as a
whole so kind of giving back dropping
myself talking about the things that I
went through in DC so I lost my best
friend in 2008 he was murdered under the
age of 15 my dad actually lost his best
friend as well when he was hired when he
was in high school so to give you a
backdrop of that just to say is that all
of the things that I face in my parish
face from homicide and just going
through all these different negative
things growing up as a team I wouldn’t
be the person I am today
without my parents we neighbors a guide
me and help me my dad didn’t have his
dad in his life but he took advantage of
his friends who had their father in
their life and they invested in sin my
father and to this day my parents
without my parents I wouldn’t be Who I
am today so when I talk about the youth
development that I did take advantage of
at the rec centers and the churches and
all those other things my other friends
they took advantage that too but some of
them aren’t here anymore but some of
them are incarcerated right now and
myself I was able to take advantage of
those things and go home and get that
positive reinforcement sometime for my
dad a little too much reinforcement but
it paid off so that’s why I think we
should invest more in sopran development
to aid in the cultivation youth
development but I ask everyone in here
will you leave can we leave here invest
in a parent whether it be someone you
know whether it be a colleague whether
it be a stranger asks everyone to invest
in the parents so that they can invest
into their child and that child can
invest it to society and make their mark
on this world thank you [Applause]
told me about my parents my beautiful
mother Selena hunter gave birth and we
have the young age of 17 years old in
Washington DC her mother was a scholar
she graduated in the top 5% of her class
and she did not afford tuition
scholarships to stay at home sooner she
raised me alongside with my father
Edward document now as you can imagine
there were many challenges that my
parents faces being teenage parents and
some of these challenges were financial
burdens receiving negative criticism not
just from trans or outsiders but as well
as some of our family members now my
mother and father grew up very
differently my mother grew up in a very
religious bit of a household my
grandfather’s been a deacon for forever
and when she decided to make an adult
decision to get pregnant my grandmother
which is very stirring back in her day
decided to for my mother that you can no
longer stay there so my mother had to go
stay with my aunt that which is Brenda
great-aunt better known as our honey
honey didn’t get her name from liking
the quit honey in 30 she got her name
from her genuine warm the loving spirit
there where my mother and father resided
at a young age our honey and my
great-grandmother throny great and they
took them under the wing they invested
into them and they wanted him to be
successful parents my mom tells me
stories about have everyone thought she
was gonna fail she’s gonna be another
negative statistics and things of that
nature but she utilized that to be an
effective parent and the things that and
the things that I want to talk about
today is that I grew up in Washington DC
like many other early city faced a lot
of struggles participating a lot of
youth development programs from the
local rec centers
Church the schools all the different
things that tons of resources and my
friends participate in these activities
as well but everyone’s path didn’t go as
planned
I lost the host of friends to homicide
incarceration substance abuse and either
suicide as I’m going to get older I
started to notice the difference and my
friends and my upbringing as I started
to mentor youth I started to notice that
a lot of youth were lacking a parent or
parents that were fully invested into
their future and this is why I firmly
believe that we need some vegetable and
parent development to aid in the
cultivation youth development so when we
talk about the household many years ago
the traditional household was no
the norm in our society where you have
wife husband kids from Eric possibly a
better socioeconomic status the children
or the child in house has two adults to
look up his role models and things like
that and this innocence was used to be
the norm in our society but things have
changed
we’ve gone from the non traditional
household belong from traditional
households to the non traditional
household and a non traditional
household can be a single mother a
single father or maybe a single Guardian
who decided to raise a child now through
this not just a non traditional
household that’s taking place today
there are many factors that have led to
the non-traditional household but one of
the factors that has led to the non
traditional household is mass
incarceration now before I get into mass
incarceration just to give you back rock
backdrop of some statistics is that over
the past 50 years those was adding in
the home only with their mother they
increased from 8 per at 8 percent to 24
percent and today one in four children
are being raised in her father’s
household so this is a picture right
here of Tony Lewis jr. the little boy
and Tony Louis senior tony is a mentor
big brother to me means a big community
activist in DC he helps return the city
to come home to get their life together
get some jobs things of that nature he
has a book out the whole nine yards
that’s Tony little Singh and his father
funny little thing it was locked up in
1989 and he’s Vince and he’s still in
prison he’s been there for life for
nonviolent drug offense and with Tony’s
father was arrested he always tells a
story that when his father went to jail
he didn’t only lose his father he
actually lost his mother as well because
mother started Supplemental illness and
he says as his data she has not been the
same since his father’s been arrested so
in Tony’s case the odds are stacked
against them usually in situations like
this and especially the neighborhood
that he was raised in in DC usually
would lead to going down the wrong path
of maybe following his father’s
footsteps or becoming a victim of gun
violence is something for something like
that but Tony also speaks about the
prominent men that played a role in his
life who were headed their own
households but some of them weren’t in
his own households now this goes to the
saying that Tony’s turned out amazing
he’s amazing person he’s turned out
great he’s doing a lot of great things
for the community and for society but
this goes to show you that it takes a
village to raise a child and
still firmly believe that today it takes
a village to raise a child but there’s a
totally difference from back finis to
today in some way that’s why well we
have to look at today we’re in a society
where social media has a heavy influence
on everyone and especially young
children children are heavily influenced
by the different things that they’re
saying in the media and things like that
so when you talk about the village today
this is why I believe that continuous
learning is important for parents to be
able to have these tough conversations
some parents may not know what a hashtag
is some parents may not know about
Instagram and Facebook and all these
different things that I know children
are getting exposed to I even catch
myself when I go to my house and some of
the things that my cousins are talking
about it sometimes unbelievable but it’s
kind of hard to kind of prevent them
from getting access to the Internet is
kind of run everything but when you have
parents that have Katinas learning
opportunities to learn how to guide
their children another thing is when you
think about cyber bullying and bullying
in the schools having these tough
conversations teaching them financial
literacy and things like that
I think casillas learning is great
myself I’m in human resources major here
at Towson University and we talked a lot
about employee engagement we talk a lot
about employee satisfaction and the
class that I have to go through after
this is employee health and wellness so
when I do become the vice president of a
human resources department I am going to
make it make it a priority to have
parent on parent development implemented
in the workplace so to kind of go back
when I talk about the single parent home
if you have a single parent home nine
times out of ten a mother that father
may have to work long hours may have to
work two or three jobs and this can take
away from that quality time of investing
in their child so from HR perspective
why not invest in the current that way
we can have them making the impact in
the office as well as outside of the
office and this can help society as a
whole so kind of giving back dropping
myself talking about the things that I
went through in DC so I lost my best
friend in 2008 he was murdered under the
age of 15 my dad actually lost his best
friend as well when he was hired when he
was in high school so to give you a
backdrop of that just to say is that all
of the things that I face in my parish
face from homicide and just going
through all these different negative
things growing up as a team I wouldn’t
be the person I am today
without my parents we neighbors a guide
me and help me my dad didn’t have his
dad in his life but he took advantage of
his friends who had their father in
their life and they invested in sin my
father and to this day my parents
without my parents I wouldn’t be Who I
am today so when I talk about the youth
development that I did take advantage of
at the rec centers and the churches and
all those other things my other friends
they took advantage that too but some of
them aren’t here anymore but some of
them are incarcerated right now and
myself I was able to take advantage of
those things and go home and get that
positive reinforcement sometime for my
dad a little too much reinforcement but
it paid off so that’s why I think we
should invest more in sopran development
to aid in the cultivation youth
development but I ask everyone in here
will you leave can we leave here invest
in a parent whether it be someone you
know whether it be a colleague whether
it be a stranger asks everyone to invest
in the parents so that they can invest
into their child and that child can
invest it to society and make their mark
on this world thank you [Applause]
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