Former inmate starts mentoring program for Charlotte youth

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Keeping kids on the right path can be a challenge, but a new mentoring program just launched, hoping to have a major impact.

The program, called “Save,” was started by Cedric Dean, who spent more than 20 years in prison.

"These problems that we're hearing from these kids are real and they're problems that, if you listen to them, they'll tell you the solution to them,” Dean said.

Antoine Shankle, 14, is one of those kids who has experienced what most would never dream of.

“Being shot at,” Shankle said. “I was just that one kid that was always in the streets, that always wanted to be and play hard, but truthfully that's not who I really was.”

For 10 weeks, the program has focused on building character. It's also exposing them to different career paths, service and education.

“We don't go in with a custom curriculum that's one size fit all, because it's not,” Dean said.

“I just thought that they would be talking without giving us a chance to talk, but they gave us a chance to talk while they were talking about it too,” Shankle said.

Dean said it’s not just what's said that matters, but what’s heard.

“And we're taking these kids and saying, ‘You are just as important as these other kids,'" Dean said.

The program is also part of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's community empowerment initiative.

It started about a year ago and is focused in Charlotte's Lakewood and Hidden Valley communities,

Cox Media Group