Know Your Neighbor

February 8, 2009

By: Sommer Brokaw, Triangle Tribune

Know Your Neighbor
Durham man enjoys mentoring

Published Wednesday, January 28, 2009
by Sommer Brokaw

DURHAM – Ismael Seals believes mentoring at-risk boys is his calling.
"It's just one of those things that you just kind of do, one of those things God just kind of puts on your heart," he said.

Standing at 6'4" and almost 300 pounds, Seals, 29, said his size can be intimidating until people get to know him. He said he can relate to the things youth maybe facing. His mother, Valory Thompson, raised him alone in Syracuse, N.Y., but he was able to spend some time with his father, Tommy Seals, during the weekends and the summer.

"A lot of young men I end up working with who are at-risk teens didn't have a father around, didn't have that kind of positive male influence, that kind of positive male interaction so it made me more appreciative of the time we did spend together," he said. "I think one of the things I try to do if they don't have a relationship with their father is to try to get them to reach out. One of toughest things I've had to do is learn is to love my father for who he is and who he is not."

Thompson was murdered in 1994 when Seals was only 14. He is proud that she overcame a heroine addiction, and earned a master's degree in drug and alcoholism counseling from Syracuse University so she could become a counselor and help others who were struggling with addiction. After she died, he went into the system and was raised mainly in foster homes and group homes, but he was able to keep in touch with his siblings through phone conversations.

He remembers his first job working with at-risk youth, 10-16, as a psych coordinator for an after- school program with the Syracuse Housing Authority. His liked being able to teach them positive peer engagement and conflict resolution skills, as well as mentoring and tutoring them.

Later, he earned a football scholarship to Temple University and got a degree in social administration. After graduation, he worked in a group home called Glen Mills Schools in Philadelphia.

Seals continued to work with various community support and mental health agencies, and his job led him to Winston-Salem, then to Durham. Currently, he works with the day treatment center at Southeastern Wake Medical Center. He couldn't disclose any names of the youth he works with due to confidentiality.

"Young people who are going through things that don't fit the standard way of growing up, they can get lost, fall into the cycle. If it's only me and him being able to share his own perspective, I think is wonderful," brother Mark Seals said.

In addition to his day job, Seals' hobbies are creating rap music, and playing football and basketball. He is also excited about working with Hip Hop Haven, a local start-up nonprofit agency that uses hip-hop music as a vehicle to reach youth.
"To me, it doesn't necessarily feel like work," he said. "It's empowering. We can have a chance to work with young people. To say to them, you have the power to change your immediate surroundings through the universal language we have which is music."
Dr. Derek Greenfield, an assistant professor sociology at Shaw University, taught Seals that hip-hop can be used for social outreach. "I never thought that somebody could use hip-hop culture as a teaching tool, but you can do it," Seals said. "He let me know that the way you can use hip-hop as a teaching tool is through its influence because hip-hop is so influential to the younger generation that you can use it as a way to break down the age barrier."

Greenfield remembers Seals as a former student of his at St. Augustine's College. "He's an incredibly intelligent and talented young man with a passion for youth empowerment and social justice," he said. "I know that his own upbringing has provided him a context for this level of commitment to young people, and I think that he found through hip-hop a powerful voice and avenue for raising consciousness on critical social issues and claiming a strong sense of identity."

Ashley Kopp, founder/executive director for Hip Hop Haven, said they took a group to Greensboro last year for the hip-hop summit, and Seals was there. "He also brings great ideas, and he recently signed on to supervise our youth board. He has great programmatic ideas, so we're happy to have him," she said.

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