Summit highlights value of involvement
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on March 27, 2017 8:13 AM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Event organizer Mark Colebrook speaks during the father-son summit Saturday at Refuge Temple Church, giving attendees several tips on how to be better fathers and sons. Although attendance was low organizers were not discouraged because they hope to grow the summit into a regular event. After speakers food was served.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jalen Taylor, 16, looks down at a handout given to him during the Father-Son Summit Saturday. Taylor does not have a father in his life, but came to the event with his mentor Timothy Whitfield.
Thirty neckties became a representation of the connection between a father and son during the Father-Son Summit Saturday at Refuge Temple Church Saturday.
The Prevention and Treatment Center, the Tranz Center and the church hosted the event that welcomed only one boy, who lost his father at 2 years old, and nearly 20 men willing to be mentors and father-figures.
Jalen Taylor, 16, the boy who attended the summit was initially slumped in his chair, distracting himself with his cell phone.
He immediately sat up straight and lifted his head when he heard someone would actually teach him how to tie a necktie.
"I don't know how, but I want to know," he said as he stood up from the back row the church.
Timothy Whitfield, organizer of the event and pastor of the church, gladly placed a tie around Jalen's neck to form the perfect knot.
"I don't give up on them. I just stick with them because they are diamonds in the rough," Whitfield said. He mentors Jalen and 10 other teenagers at the church to teach them how to be men.
Mark Colebrook, a behavioral specialist with the Prevention and Treatment Center, said he saw his own father for the first time in the obituaries of a newspaper.
He encouraged the men and Jalen to seek advice from other men even if a biological father is not around.
"I remember when I was younger -- and I didn't have a father -- but I had an uncle," Colebrook said. "He taught me small things like that. He took the time to teach me to tie a tie."
Colebrook encouraged the men to spend time with their sons in order to keep them out of gangs and trouble with the law.
He asked the group to call out stereotypes of African-American men.
One person said disrespectful, while another said uneducated. Colebrook then asked the men to define manhood.
"Staying true to yourself," Jalen said.
After Colebrook spoke to the group, special guest Dr. Craig Copeland of Fayetteville presented "Accepting the Mandate," which encouraged them to change the stereotypes by being better fathers.
"It's time to get involved and stay involved," he said. "It's up to us to work as a team opposed to being disengaged and aloof."
Milas Kelly, executive director of the Prevention and Treatment Center, said 462 clients entered the center from 2009. He said out of those clients, only 20 were fathers.
"We don't see men in the program," he said.
The Prevention and Treatment Center and Tranz Center are both located at the church. The Prevention and Treatment Center is a non-profit organization that provides at-risk youth with day services, including education, mentoring and character development, in Wayne, Lenoir and Pitt counties.
The Tranz Center, also a nonprofit, offers after-school activities for children and teens in Wayne County. Whitfield is the center's director. Colebrook is also involved in other community efforts and serves as the first vice president of the Goldsboro/Wayne branch of the NAACP.
Whitfield, Colbrook and Kelly all work to unite fathers or father figures with young men.
Kelly told the group he waited every day before his father arrived home from work. He said he and his three brothers ran to their father, who would then throw a football with them in the backyard.
"That's what many of our kids need now," he said. "We need to create a vehicle to work with our young people."