FORT WASHINGTON, Md. — As kids in the DMV continue to be exposed to violence, one group is working to build a circle of trust -- and set them up for career success.
Yasmin Salina co-founded The Hustlers Guild to give students in low-income households exposure to sports and entertainment careers -- and help them hone the internal tools they need to succeed in them.
One of their initiatives is barbershop conversations -- connecting young men and boys with local leaders who have walked in their shoes -- in a familiar setting.
“I've been shot at. I've been stabbed. I've been through this," Rodney "Red" Grant said. "I've lost things in my life. And you don't want to go through that."
Some of their students have already lost friends to gun violence.
“It’s about like all the things that they around, like they around certain stuff that's not good," 12-year-old Adonte Hunter said. "That's the reason why I'm grateful to have Ms. Yas and everybody like that in my life."
Salina, or Ms. Yas to Hunter, is building a safe space to talk about all that.
“It's always called the barbershop talk. Some of the best conversations happen in the barber shop, you know," CEO of Bustamove Cutz, Kenneth Mundey, said. "It's all badges off. You can really be yourself."
They can celebrate themselves and discuss what they need to work on.
“A lot of times self-regulation and emotions is something that is not championed, when it comes to Black kids," Salina said. "That's not something that's always been normalized to talk about your feelings. It's always a suck it up, get over it, don't cry about it kind of thing. And we want to get kids to a place that we understand why they may act out, and then get those resources to them.”
Resources from men like Mundey, who didn't have this support circle growing up.
Now, he runs his own barber shop.
“A lot of us turned to the streets to find that love and that camaraderie that we wasn't getting from panels like this, and, you know, people like Yas, with The Hustlers Guild," Mundey said. "That's why we are so intrigued to do it now for them, so they can have that to fall back on.”
Kids said it means a lot to have mentors like them to look up to.
"I know I can carry that on and keep them in my mind for different situations that I could be by myself," student Sevyn Evans said.
"I think it's extremely critical, important for young men to see these kinds of men of these caliber come in to spend this much time with them, but to also be extremely transparent about what they're going through, what they've been through in real life, and all that they can do with it," Salina said.
Then, these students can define themselves instead of letting circumstance define them.
“I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to go to the NBA," Hunter said. "I want to experience the world. That's what I want to do.”
Salina said they work with about 2,500 kids locally and provide resources to close to 175,000 students across the country.