Video After Jump
Derek Brown emerged from prison one year ago determined to make a change. Both within himself and the former neighborhoods in Chicago he once terrorized as a member of the Vice Lords street gang.
Formerly known on the streets as “Shotgun’, Brown has put down the rifle and picked up a pair of boxing gloves.
Now known as Coach Davis, he’s mentoring kids so they don’t follow in his footsteps, teaching them boxing as a form of self discipline.
“It’s [gangs] a big problem in this city, for one it’s not enough programs that’s over here, not enough community centers,” Davis said.
Instead of waiting on help that would probably never come, Derek decided to start his own community center.
“It’s two parents… your home parents, whether that’s your mother or father, and it’s the streets," he explains. “That’s something that goes unnoticed. The streets will take your kids and turn them into what they is. I look at them and I think hope. I thimk somebody is going to be something in life. I think somebody is going to be definitely better than me.”
That’s what’s up, we need more people like Derek Brown out here in the community.
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