- 4/23/2025
WMGC Teensgiving Interviews: Cedric from TCB Youth Mentoring
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00:00It's me and Jean and Shannon Renee. The holiday season is almost here and we have teamed up with the First State Bank and a really dope organization to do some really cool things for some teens in the area.
00:10Yes, we partner with TCB Youth Mentoring. I absolutely am in love with this program.
00:16And today we have Cedric Colbert on with us, who's the vice president of the organization.
00:21Don't you mean the vice president?
00:22Oh, vice president. Yes, we've established that. How are you today?
00:26Good, good, good.
00:26Good, good. So can you tell us a little bit about the organization?
00:30Sure. We mentor youth all over the Dwayne, Oakland, Macomb County.
00:40And we try to instill life skills. We try to help youth of all ages to try to navigate just their daily lives and the challenges that they're facing.
00:54In this day and age, there's certainly quite a few of those.
00:56I think things that we may have took for granted in our generation, there's quite a bit of challenge for the young people nowadays.
01:05So just trying to help them to ultimately make better choices so that they can end up in the path and the destination that they want to.
01:17So we just see ourselves as having an opportunity to guide them and to try to help them avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls that life will throw you.
01:31And like I said, we definitely try to work with those that are already operating from certain disadvantages because they definitely need more help.
01:45And the irony is those that need more help tend not to get more help.
01:49Yeah.
01:49So we try to make a conscious effort to do that.
01:53So we definitely take the work we do seriously.
01:57And we know that, you know, if we can only if we can touch one life, then it's then it's worth it.
02:05Yeah, absolutely.
02:05You know, because we all we all know that ultimately here at TCB, your decisions definitely determine your destiny.
02:13We definitely believe in that.
02:14Yeah.
02:14We talked to Tommy Barnes, who's the president and founder of TCB Youth Mentoring, and he told us kind of why he wanted to start the organization.
02:23What made you want to get involved with it?
02:24Um, I always I guess for me, young people keep you young.
02:33I used to hear my my grandparents say things like that.
02:38And, you know, I used to chuckle at it.
02:40I used to think that was funny.
02:41And now that I'm not a young person, you know, probably my kids would say that.
02:52But I definitely I appreciate their energy, the excitement that they have, that newness, even even some of the naivety is refreshing because they're not restricted.
03:10And sometimes when you get to be an adult and you've had failures or heartbreaks or whatever the case may be, you restrict yourself into thinking what you can do or what you should do or what path you should go.
03:27I think sometimes they're a little bit more open minded about what they can do.
03:32And sometimes that's good for older people, for the adults, so to speak, is to to get some of that that energy and that exuberance and that that refreshing outlook that the kids give.
03:47So I know we're talking to some of the teens that have been through the program, but can you tell me about someone, a teenager, maybe that was very inspiring to you and how they came into the program and, you know, how things ended up with them?
03:59Let's see. I had a young man who was he was he had some some housing challenges, had a large family and
04:13was able to kind of help him find a way to make a little money to kind of help stabilize his life.
04:27Some of the things that he needed to do, he needed to do.
04:31And then he was also able to use some of those techniques to also try to help, you know, because he was essentially the man of his house as a very young man.
04:42And he was able to help his mom, help his siblings, and he's still operating in that now.
04:53And I think, you know, if and I and I'm thankful that, you know, he came along when he did, because I definitely am happy that he was able to gain some of the direction and life skills to try to
05:09because he could have made a different turn.
05:13Yeah, absolutely.
05:14And so you just don't take those moments for granted.
05:18And definitely appreciative that, you know, the program and the organization was there to be able to reach out, you know, during during his time of need.
05:28Yeah, because I mean, what it's about, like you said, he had a huge family.
05:31So this is something that just affects the teenager.
05:33I mean, this has a ripple effect down the line for everyone that's in the household.
05:36Yeah.
05:37Sometimes you think, you know, you're dealing with one person.
05:40But what you don't realize is that that young man or woman, that young lady or that young man, someone's looking up to them.
05:49Yeah.
05:49They could be, you know, 10, 12 years old, but then there's a six year old looking up to them.
05:55There's a four year old looking up to them.
05:56So just being able to correct the path of one life, you can affect many others, you know, whether you directly are involved or not.
06:04And so with the teens giving program, you know, we we've talked to Tommy and he mentioned it's peer to peer where, you know, some of the youth that are involved in the program will go to these stores and buy the things that the young people and the teenagers who are involved want.
06:19So have you been there when some of these teens receive this gift?
06:22Like, what is that moment like for you where you're seeing all of these kids get these things that they want that are going to boost their confidence?
06:30Like, how does that make you feel seeing that happen?
06:32Oh, yeah.
06:32It's it's the you know, the old adage is is that you you receive more by giving and in seeing people receive things, especially when they don't expect it, when they're anticipating kind of the worst or nothing different to happen.
06:57When something positive happens for them, I think it brings out, you know, like the real joy of of what the season is about, which is, you know, uplifting someone's spirits and, you know, just just showing them that someone cares.
07:18Yeah, that's that's that's that's that's the big part of it.
07:21And and that's what you see more more than a gift.
07:24Don't get me wrong.
07:24They're appreciative.
07:26But the fact that someone cares about them means more than the item or items.
07:33And but then, you know, certainly the items hit home, too, because they do provide sometimes, you know, just a source of pride.
07:44Yeah. You know, something I didn't have or something I didn't think that I could get, you know, now that I have the the difference in somebody's outlook can change dramatically just with us, you know, like a small token.
08:00Yeah. Yeah. But we but we definitely love, you know, that effect that it has on the lives.
08:06And you see it right away. It's kind of like, what? Yeah. And then it's kind of like, oh, this is for me.
08:13Like, yeah, this all is for you. Yeah. Yeah.
08:16I did want to ask you outside of the Friendsgiving program.
08:19I know that you said that you teach them life skills and everything.
08:22Can you talk about some of the other programs and or skills that they learn within the program outside of the gift giving part?
08:29Yeah. We we will do the during the school year, we help them with their homework, with tutoring.
08:37We try to teach them with budgeting.
08:41We actually had a game come in where we had we did a game where it's almost like Monopoly,
08:48but we try to make it more lifelike to give them a budget.
08:52You know, you make a certain amount. You have to balance your budget of what you're going to spend for.
09:01We try to bring in people to speak to them, you know, that can bring them insight into different fields of interest,
09:12you know, to let them know that there's there's more options out there for you than maybe what you realize.
09:20Yeah. You know, there's more paths than just, you know, because sometimes nowadays the thing is, you know,
09:28it's one one straight line.
09:30And what I've I've found is that that learning is not always a straight line.
09:39Sometimes it can take you in a different path.
09:43But as long as you're committed to the learning, whatever that is, you know, you'll end up where you need to be.
09:52So definitely trying to just expose them to more things out there.
09:57Definitely go going to school is all that is important.
10:00But, you know, trade school, the armed services, you know, all there's just a number of things going into business for yourself,
10:08going into real estate.
10:11You know, there's a number of things that we try to expose them to to let them know where music,
10:17whatever your interest is, there's a path for you to to sustain yourself and to excel.
10:25But you just have to apply yourself to whatever that whatever interest that is, because every kid is different.
10:32Like every that's one thing I've learned over the years is that what interest one person had,
10:40another person would not even think to do that at all.
10:43They like what? Yeah.
10:45You know, and another person be like, absolutely.
10:47You know, so, yeah, it's definitely I definitely enjoy being able to present other opportunities
10:54and and then be able to really to network, help them network.
10:58Because that's another thing that that's a skill that is not being talked about, taught or exemplified half the time is networking.
11:07We try to connect them with people that can get them to where they need to go, where they want to go.
11:13Because, you know, we we we are mentors, but we we can't be the be all.
11:19And we try to connect them with people that can get them down whatever that specialty path is so that they can have extended mentorship
11:28so that they can stay on path and stay on course.
11:31And that's the that's the key.
11:33Yeah. I definitely like the part where you say like exposing them to different things.
11:36Right. Because you just never know what it's going to spark.
11:39In fact, one of the gentlemen in your program by just coming to the studio today said, I might have a new career path.
11:46One of the teens that came through here.
11:48So just my coming to the studio.
11:50So four years old. Thank you very much.
11:51Well, I'm sorry.
11:53Look, look, exposure works younger than me.
11:55I will say that.
11:57OK.
11:59Well, Cedric, thank you so much for coming down and talking about this program.
12:02This is the first time that we're partnering with TCB youth and we're really excited, you know, especially talking to you and to Tommy and to Rashard and getting, you know, different angles of what your program is and what your organization does is super exciting for us.
12:17And if someone's interested in donating to this program, you can do so at one of five on the bounce dot com.
12:22You can check out all of the stories up there that we have some of the teen success stories posted up there as well.
12:27So you can see where your dollar's going.
12:29One of five on the bounce.
12:30Yeah.
12:30They stay right here.
12:31One of five on the bounce dot com.
12:32One of five on the bounce.
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