The crime rate in Albany, Georgia, amongst teenage boys is at a very high rate and continues to rise. Paired with poverty plaguing the area, the likelihood of boys involved with delinquency rises even further. King Randall laments the lack of help for such children, whom the communities may see as a lost cause, and thus he decided to take matters into his own hands.
King Randall is the 21-year-old founder of The X for Boys, a youth organization to provide learning and growth opportunities for young men between 11 and 17. The organization is a “Man-Making Machine,” in the founder’s words, as it revives the lost art of teaching boys how to become men.
In the first year of the organization, the founder hosted a summer camp in his own home, with his wife and child, where he taught young men necessary life skills including cooking, home maintenance and repair, and car maintenance and repair. From there, the list of skills he imparted only grew: how to tie ties, write resumes, and how to do job interviews. King Randall goes beyond the limits of academic teaching. Instead, he exhibits genuine care and concern for each of his boys. For this reason, he opened his home to become a safe space for children who may be having trouble elsewhere.
The founder takes them on field trips in various states to explore what the world outside of Georgia is like. He teaches them how to properly handle firearms with respect for the weapon that they are holding. The media’s typical depiction of weapons and firearms is damaging, and it is only in learning how to shoot that the children learn to respect the weapon.
Children desire for a person they respect to pay attention and give the effort to help them grow, and even juvenile delinquents are not exempt from this. Some of those who fall into delinquency fall astray because of inadequate guidance, not an innate need to be destructive. In providing learning opportunities and a good social support network for these young men, none of the delinquents he taught went back to jail.
Since its conception, King Randall has funded each project, activity, and field trip out of pocket. Still, the extent of what a single man can do financially is extremely limited. With his vision of expanding his reach and being able to touch more children’s lives, he has taken to sourcing the funds from donations. Soon, The X for Boys will have an associated boarding school, which will be named The Life Preparatory School for Boys.
King Randall has received a considerable amount of attention from across the country for dedicating his life to help the youth despite being barely out of youth himself. He reminds people that young men are trying to better themselves and that the community must build them up. In an ideal world, communities come together, improving families, communities, countries, and ultimately, the world.
Learn more about King Randall and The X for Boys by visiting this website.
