ATLANTA — A mentorship program that has been credited for helping young men get off the street recently raised thousands of dollars to help out even more young men.
The Prison Doctor organization is providing young men, including the popular water boys, with opportunities to get jobs and learn skills.
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“I’m a prison prevention specialist. I help at-risk youth,” said founder Myron Fountain.
Fountain is called The Prison Doctor. He works with young people who may be heading down the wrong path. It’s something he takes personally.
“I mentor them and try to keep them from going to a place that I went for a long time for vehicular armed robbery,” Fountain said.
Fountain said he served his sentence in Detroit, and when he got out of prison, he wanted to prevent others from making wrong decisions.
“I started networking with all of the local police departments, saying, ‘Hey, if you got an at-risk youth or a child that needs an intervention, pass my information along.’ I go to the homes for free, no charge to the parent at all,” he said. “I help to educate these kids and also employ them to work at Onsite Shine to make a decent amount of money and help transform their lives.”
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Damani Brathwaite, 13, is part of the program. He said before he joined, he was in trouble.
“I used to involve myself with drugs, alcohol and theft,” Brathwaite said.
He said this mentorship helped save his life.
“It’s helped me because I’m an A student now. I’ve been getting good grades. I’ve been helping my mom out a lot more,” Brathwaite said.
Fountain said he was recognized for helping at least 15 of the popular water boys.
“I would make him an offer to say, ‘Hey, look, I can get you off the street,’ and asked them if they wanted to work for me or work for the car wash, where you can possibly make $1,000 per week.”
His program recently raised thousands of dollars to help the mentorship.
“A lot of my kids are in McDonough, they live in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County. This will allow them to get them bus passes. It also helps me to get them books and certain materials, to educate these kids and teach them,” Fountain said.
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Channel 2′s Larry Spruill asked Fountain why his organization is so successful.
“When people ask me, what is my method? Why am I so effective with these kids when others have failed, God. That is my honest answer. I speak God into these children,” he said.
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