LYNN — Keith Lee knows the research.
Kids who come from low-income families, commonly referred to as at-risk youth, are more likely to become teen mothers, involved in gangs and other criminal activity and are less likely to graduate from a four-year college, according to statistics shared by Social Solutions.
Lee, 45, of Lynn, hasn’t learned about the risk factors from a textbook. He grew up in poverty and was on the cusp of becoming a statistic himself.
“I was on the verge of gangs and selling drugs,” Lee said. “I was getting ready to go sell some drugs one day before I enrolled in North Shore (Community College). The bag broke in my mouth. I laughed because it was a sign. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be doing it. Luckily, I was headstrong enough to realize it.”
Lee enrolled in NSCC the next day and later went on to earn a scholarship to attend Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where he played basketball and helped the team to its first NCAA tournament bid.
He credits finding a small support group and basketball with keeping him off the streets and guiding him down the right path. But he said he found himself at a crossroads of almost falling into criminal behavior because of a lack of guidance early on coupled with few available resources.
It’s that experience that led Lee to start a new nonprofit, Sports Support Inc., which aims to help at-risk boys and girls improve athletically, mentally, and academically to help them transition successfully into adulthood.
“I wanted to help underprivileged, at-risk and low-income youth because they don’t have any resources or opportunities out there other than the Boys (and Girls) Club and the YMCA,” Lee said. “My program is to implement mentorship directly, because I came from where they came from as well.”
The organization is still in the early stages, but Lee envisions efforts that would include an outreach program to provide youth with technology skills to prepare them for the workforce; a mentorship and tutoring program for elementary to high school aged kids; and a sports program that would provide training opportunities in basketball, soccer, baseball and football where coaches would act as mentors, according to the Sports Support website.
Lee said there’s a real void in the community for those planned resources. Families are often priced out of paying for sports equipment and programming. Or there’s simply not enough recreational programs available in schools, he said.
Kids need an outlet to keep them off the streets and away from gangs and drugs, he said. For instance, Lee said he was too busy to get into trouble when he was attending college, playing basketball and working two jobs.
His earliest effort has been to work directly with a teenager trying to transition out of a gang. The aim is to get him a job and into college, Lee said.
“He’s trying to turn his life around right now,” Lee said. “It’s these kind of things that I’m trying to do on a larger scale that will be more effective.”
He’s teamed with Stop the Violence Lynn co-founder Antonio Gutierrez to start some programming for at-risk youth next year. But he ran into a roadblock when he tried to put his desired sports training program in place at NSCC.
The program would target kids and teens in grades 5-12, which he said is the age group that is more at-risk of deviant behavior. But he said the college’s administrators didn’t bite. He was told at one point their gym wasn’t equipped for the programming because it wasn’t up to code.
Linda Brantley, a spokeswoman for NSCC, said the gym is not in the best condition, but it is definitely up to code. College administration decided not to partner with the nonprofit so the gym space could be preserved for its students’ needs, along with college and community events, and because there are safety issues with having minors on campus, she said.
“We just kind of felt that due to the time commitment involved, it really wasn’t going to work well for the college,” Brantley said. “It sounds like it’s a great program. We wish him the best.”
Brantley said the college referred Lee to the YMCA for a potential venue for the program. He’s still trying to secure a space, but he cited his limited financial resources.
Another endeavor he has undertaken has been to start a semi-professional basketball team, Boston Eleet, which has been accepted into the American Basketball Association (ABA).
A former ABA player himself, Lee sees the future team’s players as having the potential to be role models for youth in the community. He said there’s tentative plans for the team to play at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute in November 2020, which would require approval from the Lynn School Committee.
The official kickoff for Sports Support Inc. will be a fundraising event on Dec. 20. Details have not been planned.
