Shawn Childs
Lead Mentor- House of Hope Mentoring

email: shawn.childs@rcitycdc.org

I’m from Chicago, Illinois, raised in the Cabrini Green Housing projects on the near north side of Chicago. At a young age I experienced a lot of trauma in my life with violence, gangs, drugs, and prison. I was a kid that experienced a lot very fast. I had to make adult decisions at a very young age, and most of my younger years I was involved in gangs. I spent many years in prison, getting shot multiple times.

During my last prison stay, I realized that violence was not the key to life and hurting people only caused more pain. So I decided to change my life and take all my street knowledge and knowledge that I learned over the years to clean it up and make it positive. I realized that if I used the same strength and wisdom that I used in a negative way and turned it around and made it positive, I could teach young men and young girls how to become productive citizens and avoid negative situations. I decided to start my own foundation called the House Of Hope Foundation. My mission is to teach kids how to avoid situations, overcome negativity, and avoid from being caught up in the jail system. I currently have over 20 years experience in mentoring and community outreach with at risk kids.

I realize that one of the keys to helping confused kids is understanding them and showing them there is another way. You have to be able to teach a kid how to direct his or her anger to turn it into a positive situation, because all anger is not bad anger. I understand that I cannot save every kid in the world, but if I can save one and train them with my knowledge and wisdom, they can then take that knowledge and save another.