We recently connected with Calvin Mann and have shared our conversation below.
Calvin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
It was the summer of 1992 and I took a job at a friend’s home day care center as a Child Care worker. I was 25 with a 3-year old son of my own; caring for about 12 kids from 1-5 years old. When you are a care giver, as a parent or just working with kids that age, you become very perceptive. You really develop your first set of super powers! You seem to develop a second-sense for what they need. In turn, they develop a trust in you to love them and to protect them from the things that they don’t understand or the things that scare them. I was not exempt! I took both their trust and my role very seriously.
The daycare was filled with children from the community. The center was placed centrally in the heart of Ferndale, MI. This would turn out to be one of the most important seasons of my life. Because this summer, birthed the beginning of Encourage Me I’m Young. It was a windy day in July 1992, when the words, “Encourage Me I’m Young”, blew open the door to the daycare center and literally to the 28-year journey of becoming EMIY Inc. There were important benchmarks along the way. But the most pivotal turn happened in the summer of 2004.
Now, at age 58, my life had changed its course and I was employed by Northwest Airlines. I was making a good living for myself and my family and had expanded to include a new marriage and 3 kids. Even as I worked every day, I knew it was more to me and for me. Because I believed myself to be a great amateur comedian, I thought I would try my hand at comedy. Everyone knows that life presents the best materials for jokes. So week after week, I searched for material and inspiration in the local paper, the Detroit News. As it turns out, I had found my inspiration, it just was not for comedy. I would find the beginning of my life’s commitment.
“Time is all we have to change who we are.” It would be my first quote that I would share with others. It would be one of the many epithets that an Encourage ME I’m Young shirt would brandish in the years to come. At that time, these were the words that comforted me as my heart shattered reading story after story of our children being senselessly murdered. Kids were dying on main streets, at home, in abandoned buildings, in cars, and even at school. These were all the places where kids were supposed to be safe and we yet were failing them. The kids dying were the ages of my kids. The ages of the kids that I came to love in the daycare center years prior. The ages of kids that I coached in high school just preparing to start their lives. These kids; OUR KIDs, lives were lost and we somehow were missing the urgency of their silent cries. Everywhere a kid died, I began to lay an EMIY shirt. I wanted them to know that I was listening and I would be the agent of change to hear their voices and those of other kids. We needed to change their narrative for other children and families. It now has 17 years of vision.
I heard their silent cries louder than ever that year and every year since, I have spent my life obligated to do more to prevent the loss of our kids. Encourage Me I’m Young was never designed to be an organization. It was designed to be an answer to the silent cries of slain children to not let their death be in vain. Encourage Me I’m Young is a response to the wailings of parents, families and communities to do something NOW. Encourage Me I’m Young exists to encourage each child to choose a course of life for themselves and others. For adults those who wear the epithet to remember the value of the youth we once shared… and to choose LIFE for them. Make choices to protect them. Teach them. Prepare them. Believe in them. Because one day, they will be us and our voices will either echo or be silent to them.
In June of 2018, I laid the last of the 630 EMIY shirts place in memorial at the death sites kids. The last shirt number 630, was placed behind the abandoned building of Cooley High School, for the loss of my niece Jodi. By the end of the same year EMIY had served more than 15,800 kids of all ages, ethnicities, and family dynamics. Our message and direction is clear. We will continue, with urgency to prevent the lack of encouragement in children, families and communities. We are the change we need in our world because “Time is ALL we have to CHANGE who we ARE.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I Calvin T. Mann, National Encourager am gifted as a facilitator, talk show host (Daddy Talk and EMIYTV podcast), mentor, vocalist, producer, visionary, coach, author, community activist, and proud father of 5. He continues to build boys and men in ways that change their trajectory daily. He has coordinated recreation, organized sports and mentorship programs, and led intervention strategies in detention centers, communities, families, and schools. Since 2004, a champion for the silenced voices of children slain to suicide and violence; Mann placed t-shirts with positive messages of encouragement at the sight of slain children to raise awareness of our responsibility to our children and their future. Mann’s passion and unique perspective exemplifies diversity, self-belief, and love for his fellow man.
Often serving on panels, creating intervention opportunities in schools, or speaking directly to students of all ages he offers enlightening words of encouragement while captivating audiences. Sharing practical solutions and perspectives of boys, men, husbands, and fatherhood, realizing our human potential, revealing the benefits of mentorship, family connections, and community impact are just a few of the topics that have empowered people toward real change. He has earned the respect and admiration of many including the City of Detroit bestowed its highest honor “The Spirit of Detroit” award along with Wayne County and the State of Michigan both presenting powerful Resolutions naming April 6th “EMIY National Respect Day” to acknowledge the achievement, also recently given the Public Elevation Award by MENTOR.Org. investment and role of Calvin T. Mann locally and throughout the country. Calvin is a Man[n] on the front line; encouraging boys, supporting fathers; and changing families and our community one encouraging word at a time. EMIY Brand is growing
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2015 while going through a divorce, I was left with a moment of being alone and not having a place to live. I didn’t want to break up the home where my children were living so my journey to me to the floor of a friend’s apartment. While there I would ask God if this is what he had for me. Months went by and I was able to get back on my feet with the help of some of my fathers who were in my circle of fatherhood. I purchased a mini van and it was then that I realized I didn’t miss a beat during this time I continued to do the work that we are doing today. God is my virtue.
Standing With an Awesome God!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
In 2009 while listening to the radio, I heard about a young lady helping people with nonprofits her name was Heather Miller, and she would write our first program that fall as I knew very little about program writing. You have to remember I was given this nonprofit by a mother in 2007 and my mind was just about helping children at that time.
In 2016 Heather would resurface and begin to help and in 2019 she would become the executive director of our nonprofit and assist us in growing from inside and out.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.emiyworld.com
- Instagram: @emiyworld_
- Facebook: @EMIY-encouragemeimyoung
- Linkedin: Encourage Me Im young
- Twitter: @emiyworld
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/EMIYTV
- Other: www.emiyapparel.com
Image Credits
Mentors David Patterson, Victor Baez in red uniform, Salim MuMin at one table with mentees, Heather Miller are in the picture with me,