The Males Place: Mentorship that empowers young men through urban agriculture
As this year’s growing season wraps up, Singleton remains rooted in ensuring young men in his community keep blossoming.
By Elvis Menayese
WFAE
September 20, 2023
Excerpt:
The nonprofit works with boys 12 to 18 years old. Singleton draws on his upbringing around the Sea Islands near Charleston — where he did seasonal work that included picking and growing crops starting around age five to help support his family — to teach the boys life skills. The Beatties Ford Road corridor has higher rates of violent crime than the city as a whole, and many residents lack access to healthy, fresh food.
Singleton says the garden is a way to address those issues.
“The agriculture piece is not only addressing and ensuring that we have access to clean, healthy food but deeper concepts into being self-sufficient, solving problems, as well as being able to work side by side with young people in natural areas,” Singleton said.
Kingston Wizzart, 14, is one of about a dozen boys working in the garden. He rakes the soil to help dinosaur kale and collard greens grow. Wizzart, who attends West Charlotte High School, says the program brings out another side of him.
“I used to be more quiet and to myself, but since I joined The Males Place, I started talking to more people,” Wizzart said. “I’ve been showing a little bit more of my inner self that nobody has really ever seen before.”
