We were lucky to catch up with Jamal Stroud recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamal, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Big Homie Lil Homie Mentoring is committed to building strong, trusting relationships, positive attitudes, and life skills in young males through mentoring and enriching life experiences.

Our vision is to stimulate positive change in young males’ lives and their families. Big Homie Lil Homie is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization mentoring program. The organization provides guidance and mentors at-risk youth who come from single-parent homes. The organization caters to young males between the ages of 6-16 within the Greater Columbia (SC) Area. The organization is devoted to shaping and molding youth into great men in society. Big Homie Lil Homie organizes male discussions, outings, and educational assistance devoted to guiding and leading youth in a positive light.

Thirty-two-year-old African American Jamal Stroud exudes positivity and light. Not necessarily an intuitive state of being for someone who started life in New York City’s foster care system. Like many who have experienced the kind of adversity he faced as a child, Stroud could have embraced the mean streets. Instead, he has focused his energy on helping today’s young men of color rise above similar hardships. He founded Big Homie Lil Homie (BHLH), a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization, in 2017 in Columbia, South Carolina, where he now lives with his wife and two children. Stroud, described by one of his organization’s volunteer mentors as “the most humble person” he knows, has already grown BHLH to serve more than 225 at-risk boys in his community.

Jamal’s role model was Uncle Phil on the TV sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

“I always wanted to be like him,” Stroud said. “I wanted to be like him so bad with his tough love. Whatever topic and lesson there was in an episode, I wanted to make that part of my life — be a better person, a better man and to become a father.”

In my neighborhood, Jamal saw young people sell drugs or play basketball in hopes of a better life. It was in high school that a male teacher encouraged Stroud to look beyond Brooklyn.

“‘The world’s much bigger than Brooklyn, N.Y. You can go anywhere in this world,’” he told Jamal.

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?

Big Homie Lil Homie provides mentoring services and educational assistance to increase GPAs, and test scores, work to improve living standards for at-risk youths, and reduce the complications and low self-esteem that come from a lack of moral support.

Establishing relationships is essential to plant the seed for positive action that can change the world. As of right now, we want to increase awareness of children who are in single-parent homes. We’d love to expand to other states to reach more kids. We want to break this generation’s curse of not having a male role model.

We just need to pour into these kids. At the end of every conversation, because we don’t know what they’ve been told and they may not hear it on a daily basis, I like to say, “You’re loved, you’re valuable, and you’re precious.”

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in foster care. My mom and dad both suffered from alcohol and drug abuse. My mom basically left me in the hospital, and I was in seven different foster homes by the age of seven. That weighed heavily on me. I felt unloved and unwanted, and I blamed myself for that, but I didn’t understand how to articulate any of that. Learning how to adjust to new families and new things was very challenging. It was hard to make friends because I always felt like I’m not going to be here for any length of time.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I realized things happen for a reason. When I was in high school, I found two mentors — Jerry and Dwayne. They came around and started to pour into me. They used to take me out to play basketball, and I thought, This is wonderful. Now we’re doing the same thing with Big Homie Lil Homie. It is a mentor initiative through which we provide guidance for at-risk youth who are in single-parent homes. We cater to young males between the ages of six and 16 within the greater Columbia, South Carolina, area. We want to uplift and mold our young males into great men of society.

Our “big homies,” our mentors, stay in touch with their little homies throughout the week. I tell them they don’t have to spend any money. It’s the time they give that matters. And we have outings, discussions, and educational assistance, all geared toward guiding our young males in a positive light.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bighomielilhomie.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BigHomieLilHomie/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bighomielilhomie/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jstroudbhlh/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jstroudbhlh
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmaK-AH6_IVkONbGRnTJihA