Happy Wednesday, Golden Divas & Divos!

I hope you are well and had a great summer. We have entered another season since your last read, so let me be the first to say, “Welcome back to Club Fifty!”

Club Fifty is kicking off the fall season with a topic dear to my heart: Mentorship!

What is the true meaning of mentorship?

Mentorship is a powerful word and a great act of kindness from an individual who receives guidance from a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution.

What is the purpose of mentoring?

Mentoring aims to facilitate individuals’ personal and professional growth by providing guidance, support, and knowledge transfer from experienced mentors to mentees.

Golden Divas, I would like you to marinate on these (2) explanations for this interview and consider that a female mentors young boys. Kudos to her because this is not an easy feat; however, God has qualified her with love, patience, kindness, and knowledge to encourage our young boys today despite the society that they live in. She is a haven for them so that they can grow to become well-equipped for what life has to offer; as a sounding board, she also provides advice, guidance, inspiration, and encouragement. This ‘Golden Diva’ is a powerhouse in Chicago, and the backstory of how she started her business is compelling and refreshing. I enjoyed creating some graphics for this beauty with eFay-Designs for her events and quickly realized that she is someone I wanted you to know. She is one of Chicago’s finest, making waves as a mentor to young boys with her literacy not-for-profit organization, We Got You Covered. She has a heart and soul for serving and protecting the streets of Chicago and the extraordinary skill set to mentor young boys to a safe place where they can be themselves. Giving back is what she does to help so many young boys to see their future. I’m honored to be able to do this interview with her and to see and hear the passion in her voice when she talks about the different projects she has going on with her young men. Without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Kimberly Lloyd. Your GREAT WORKS have not gone unnoticed!

“God has ordered her steps! I am so impressed and inspired by one of Chicago’s finest. Dr. Kimberly Lloyd is a trailblazer and a motivator who tirelessly gives back to the young boys with her phenomenal impact on the community ”

— B.F. McCain

Dr. Kimberly Darlene Lloyd is a 59-year-old African American woman and a Chicago native. Dr. Lloyd began her adult working career with the Archdiocese of Chicago on the south side of Chicago. Her first assignment was an administrative role with St. Clotilde Grammar School and Saint Martin DePorres High School. Later, she accepted a position with Chicago Youth Centers on the Westside of Chicago, where she was the assistant to the West Area Director of both ABC and BBR Youth Centers. After a couple of years with CYC, she felt it was time to move on and accepted an assignment with the Chicago Board of Education. This new administrative position was on the south side of Chicago in the Bronzeville community at Mollison Elementary School. After two years, Dr. Lloyd took a new administrative assignment at Hyde Park Career Academy, and she spent four years there before leaving to embark upon a career in law enforcement.

Kim deeply desired to complete her education but needed financial support to accomplish her goal. Consequently, she quit the board of education and joined the Chicago Police Department, where tuition reimbursement was available. She has been employed with CPD for 25 years. During these 25 years, she successfully completed what she started at Fisk University when she earned her undergraduate degree in communications at Roosevelt University, earned an MBA from Saint Xavier University, and a PhD from DePaul University’s School of Education – Graduating magna cum laude, while also working full-time for the Chicago Police Department. Dr. Kimberly Lloyd is also the Founder, Director, and CEO of We Got You Covered – WGYC. WGYC is a not-for-profit organization developed out of sheer desperation to save lives. Their purpose is to revitalize literacy achievement among inner-city African American boys.

Kim was bestowed the honor of the 11th Phenomenal Woman of the 52 Phenomenal Women Project by Amy Boyle. Amy was hand-selected to work for Oprah magazine, and she hand-selected Dr. Lloyd to participate in her project. At the same time, Dr. Lloyd was still a doctoral student at DePaul University. Kim has had the honor, privilege, and pleasure to help raise a daughter who was not born to her but to a loving mother who granted her permission to be a part of her daughter’s life since the child was the tender age of nine years old. Nicole is now 45 years old and has her children, of which Kim is the godmother. She is affectionately known as Dr. G-momma. Kim has been a Trinity United Church of Christ member since she was fifteen. She enjoys tennis, cycling, basketball, running, and weight lifting.

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THE BIRTH OF WE GOT YOU COVERED

December 2014 changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of my family and friends as we, too, felt the pain of the Bailey family. Because of this family, “We Got You Covered” was born. On a Saturday afternoon in December, I came home from work, and while still in my police uniform, I walked to the kitchen, where I turned the television on and watched in horror as the reporter announced that an African American teen had been killed while trying to help his identical twin brother who was being robbed of his shoes. This should have been a day that represented the twin’s first experience of independence from parental supervision. The independence that most teenagers seek is the freedom to safely walk to and from practice without being picked up and dropped off. This would be the first time their mother allowed them to practice independently, and this would also be the last time she saw one of her sons alive. I was so upset. I called a mother-like figure and said, “We have got to do something because this is ridiculous.” Today, it’s this child, but tomorrow, it may be one of our children.” Shortly after, I contacted an attorney who prepared all the documentation for my nonprofit. I was forging straight ahead, but life got in the way, and as a result, I stopped working at the nonprofit because of hip surgery. But here comes God, bringing me back on track.

During my sabbatical from the nonprofit work, my grandson lost his cell phone. The woman who found it called my daughter and left a message. On the voicemail, she said, “Hi, I found your son’s phone at the park today, and I’m calling to give it back to you. He reminds me of my son, so I will ensure he gets his phone.” She and my daughter tried multiple times to meet but kept missing each other. However, the day they met, the lady said, “Hi, I’m so glad to meet you finally. Your baby boy reminds me of my son. I don’t know if you remember this, but my son was killed on 63rd and State Street.” My daughter immediately became emotional and said, “Oh my God, yes, I remember you and your son. My mom started a nonprofit because of what happened to your baby, and we have been praying for you and your family ever since.” What are the chances of Ms. Bailey finding my grandson’s phone in a large metropolitan city like Chicago? I got back to work. God’s message was delivered, and I acknowledged His word. Everyone was lost on that December day, and victims’ and offenders’ lives were forever changed. We Got You Covered was born out of tragedy, but we hope to save another parent from the devastation of losing a child. That’s why we say we were born out of sheer desperation to save lives.

Lives were frever changed

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Lives were frever changed 〰️

IN CONVERSATION WITH DR. KIMBERLY LLOYD

C50: Tell us all about your nonprofit organization W.G.Y.C.

KL: WGYC works primarily with Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in the Bronzeville community. I began working with the Urban Prep campus, housed inside the downtown campus of Roosevelt University. I was asked by Mr. Martin, a teacher at Urban Prep, to speak with his students from the perspective of being a woman, a police officer, and a PhD while addressing topics of harassment/Abuse, social-emotional learning (SEL), and the importance of assimilation/code-switching and the “N” word. In the 21st century, illiteracy is hiding in plain sight among African-American boys, who are often suspended, expelled, referred to special education classes, and who score the lowest in literacy of all youth who take standardized tests. Catastrophically, U.S. literacy has only improved by 17% in 142 years. Meanwhile, WGYC’s goal is to eradicate illiteracy among African American boys. As an educator and human being, it would be remiss of me to only focus on the educational goals set for these youth and not address their basic and personal needs, which is why WGYC established the barber shop Monday and the uniform/shoe drive. The school’s uniform requires students to wear blazers, white shirts, khaki pants, ties, and dress shoes. Unfortunately, parents often find themselves without the funds to purchase these items.

C50: Mentoring boys and girls can positively impact our youth. Dr. Kimberly, did your profession as a police officer steer you to decide to mentor young boys instead of young girls?

KL: No, my profession as a police officer did not impact my decision to mentor boys. However, my experiences with the youth at Chicago Youth Centers (CYC) and Mollison Elementary School did. These two organizations provided a lens that illustrated how African American boys find themselves in violent situations that are often unavoidable and how they experience overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, from having to fight to keep someone from stealing the shoes off his feet as Chris walked one block from Lawndale Academy to ABC youth center. He entered the center fighting, and when I attempted to intervene and reprimand him, he shook his little fist down on the sides of his body and said, “LOOK! If I don’t fight that boy today, I’ll have to fight that boy every day. He tried to take my shoes.” Or at Mollison when I approached one of my 4th graders about bringing a knife to school, and he said, “This knife ain’t long enough to catch no case.” When I displayed a look of disgust – tears welled up in his eyes, and he said, “What difference does it make, Ms. Lloyd? I’m probably going to be dead by the time I’m sixteen anyway.” Then, he used his little fingers to call out the names of his family members who were either dead or incarcerated. These moments occurred over 30 years ago, but each incident is as fresh in my mind as it was when it first happened.

C50: Mentoring aims to guide, support, and encourage a mentee to be their best. However, the million-dollar question remains, “Should women mentor boys?”

KL: Yes, men and women need to mentor boys because, individually and collectively, we provide them with different perspectives. God gives us two parents…to balance a child’s life: yin -femaleness and yang – maleness. Consequently, once a week, I have a professional African American man join the boys and me for what WGYC calls “Black Men Speak.” These men are college professors, doctors, pastors, surgeons, nurses, masseurs, chief of police, and head radiologists. They come to share their stories of how they navigated from boyhood to manhood. I believe that, as a society, we should be more concerned with the message than the gender of the messenger. Otherwise, we’ll continue to work in separate, gendered silos as if one gender is better than the other.

C50: Is there a difference between women and men regarding mentoring young boys and helping them walk into manhood?

KL: Becoming a well-adjusted human being is a process regardless of gender and requires input from both genders, hence why society suggests “it takes a village” to raise children. Based on my experiences with boys and men, they tend not to expose what makes them uncomfortable to men for fear of being considered weak, too emotional, or acting like a girl. Consequently, how boys process their feelings is essential and requires mature men and women who grasp their emotional intelligence, so “tough” or “being too soft” isn’t all they teach. Often, we find both men and women with unresolved traumas that they inadvertently pass on to children, including their own, because you can’t give what you didn’t get.

C50: What are the ages and requirements of the young men you mentor at W.G.Y.C.? Tell us one of the most challenging situations you encountered while mentoring young boys.

KL: WGYC only requires students to attend Urban Prep Academy Bronzeville Campus. Students range in age from 14 to 18 and are in 9th to 12th grade.

The most formidable challenge when dealing with African American boys at this age is helping them manage their feelings so that every negative encounter doesn’t result in a physical altercation. They should be taught problem-solving skills and how not to allow folks to minimize their feelings because they are boys but because their feelings have validity—being accountable for their actions and owning them. Last but not least is the need to confront “acting tough,” which is a defense mechanism…for acceptance and the safety of their bodies as they navigate living in a society where they are viewed as men when they are still children by both mothers and fathers when they constantly hear “man-up” when these children are as young as five years old.

C50: What is the power of female mentorship to young men?

KL: Female mentorship provides young men with nurturing leadership skills, fosters critical thinking, encourages strategic decision-making, and illustrates compassion, wisdom, and resilience.

C50: Dr. Kim, do you believe shared values are more important than gender?

KL: Yes, having values, regardless of gender, serves as a template to guide one’s decisions and how one acts towards others. Core values like integrity, accountability, honesty, and compassion help formulate one’s beliefs, systems, and principles. Youth need to recognize that the things they do and how they behave should match their values.

C50: Do you feel that mentoring can address gender inequalities?

KL: I believe mentoring can inform youth about gender inequalities and help them see themselves positively, thus improving their self-esteem. They must understand and recognize their self-worth and that no one can make them feel inferior without consent. Our youth, especially boys, are criminalized at early ages based on stereotypes, television, social media, hyper surveillance in schools and malls, overrepresentation in special education, and being referred to and arrested by police. Our boys are viewed as less innocent as early as pre-school. As Black folks, we need all boots on the ground to help mentor our babies because no one is coming to save them but us.

C50: What successful tips can you share with our C50 readers?

KL: As a woman who mentors boys, I would tell any woman interested in traveling down this road to first come in the door, be transparent, and ensure the youth know they are in a safe space to be their authentic selves. Don’t expect them to behave like girls because they are far more physical with each other, which means they like physical contact. It’s one of the ways they communicate with each other. Additionally, part of their behavior includes “capping” on one another, which is how they bond. Boys are typically not as vocal as girls, so it’s essential to tap into the subject areas that interest them. Once you establish trust and the boys feel a sense of commitment from you, they will be all in. I acknowledge them individually, asking how they are doing and how school is, and most importantly, I make it a habit to ask, “Are you straight?” Surprisingly, they will share if they are having a problem with a student, teacher, or at home. The bottom line is to listen to them without judgment and make them feel welcome and safe.

C50: . Can cross-gender mentoring add value to a boy’s life?

KL: Absolutely, cross-gender mentoring adds value to a boy’s life. I have had the pleasure of being a part of cross-gender coaching. I have witnessed how both boys and girls interact differently with the opposite sex. Occasionally, the mentor provides the missing links that are void from the youth’s home. The family dynamics of the household have drastically changed. Single dads, single moms, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and older siblings are raising children. Traditional households no longer exist, but as mentors, parents of others, and adults, it’s essential to fill in the daily gaps many youths experience.

BONUS QUESTION

C50: Dr. Kimberly, how can someone contact you if they want their son or someone else’s son to get involved with ‘We Got You Covered’?

blackboyzwhocanread@wegotucovered.org

(773) 263-9506

Wegotucovered.org

There you have it, Golden Divas & Divos. It takes a village to assist in raising our young boys and girls, and in this case, that village comes via our ‘Golden Diva,’ Dr. Kimberly Lloyd, the ultimate mentor for today’s young boys!

Club Fifty would like to thank Dr. Kimberly Lloyd for all her services to W.G.Y.C.

Dr. Kimberly Lloyd