My name is Fong Tran and I’m the Youth Specialist of Asian Resources. I have the privilege of helping young people find employment, access college and training, and foster leadership. I’m a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley and received my degree in Social Welfare and doubled minor in education and public policy. I grew up in a Vietnamese refugee family raised by 4 siblings and a single mother. We got by living low income housing, government assistance and food stamps. I was one of three seniors that went to Berkeley in my class so I consider myself a success story of South Sacramento

My older brother however walked a much different path as he grew up as non English  speaking refugees from Vietnam and the camps from the Philippines. As a teenage, he was out-casted for being Vietnamese and he found it hard to succeed in school. He couldn’t find a job and so he turned to gangs to find autonomy and income to support himself. He dropped out by the tenth grade and was incarcerated three times. This was luckily before the three strikes law was instituted otherwise I don’t know where my brother would be. After his third sentence, a family friend decided to invest in my brother’s vocational training and now he’s a successfully contractor with a beautiful 6 month year old daughter.

Looking back at the situation the one factor that differentiated my own path and my brother was that I had opportunities and resources that he never had. I had mentors that believed in me and allowed me to be the person I am today. Someone decided to invest in my brother 3 jail terms too late. After dropping out/ After being gang involved/ After many family heartaches. We as a State cannot make the same mistake. We cannot think to make the investment later when the most effective time to believe in our young men of color is right now.

Today, I mentor young men to find a jobs and go to college. I’ve seen young men discouraged by broken education school systems, previous gang members, homeless and foster youth. For these young disenfranchised men, they do not only become a productive member of society but this becomes the most empowering process they will ever go through. I teach them basic skills from professionalism, making a resume, various soft skills but most importantly, they learn how to love what they’re doing by owning it. Tying a tie becomes a point of self empowerment. They will not only be productive members of society but they will be the leaders. I whole heartedly believe that youth work is the greatest form of social change but we must make that investment now. We can no longer think that we can jail our way out of this so called “problem”, we must heal our young men with restorative policies and preventative programs. And this is not a problem but Boys and Men of Color is the solution to everything that no one has thought of. Thank you.

(Click Title for link for Sac Bee Article)