Columbia mentoring program awarded $10,000 on Ellen. Here’s how it will be used

On Oct. 9, the Columbia mentoring program Big Homie Lil Homie was featured on an episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show and was awarded $10,000 by comedian Tiffany Haddish and Shutterfly.

Jamal Stroud started the program in 2017 to help young boys growing up without father figures. Stroud grew up in foster care and did not have a male role model as a child. One day, Stroud decided to gather a group of male mentors to help boys ages six through 16.

“This is a great, great milestone that we made as a team and as an organization, but the job is not done yet because we have this never-ending cycle of youth that constantly needs our help,” said Stroud.

Stroud began tagging Ellen on social media posts and emailing her about the mentoring program as soon as he started it. Three years later, he finally got a response.

After watching the show for many years, Stroud said he admired Ellen for the work that she’s done to “shine the spotlight on people that are helping people in their community.”

One of the mentors that helped start Big Homie Lil Homie was Jamal’s close friend Michael Finkley. The two attended Allen University together and it was a no-brainer that Finkley would help run the program and be a mentor.

“We go on outings, we have one-on-ones with our little homies, we do so many different educational things, life things to prepare them for the next stage of their lives,” said Finkley.

Big Homie Lil Homie has more than 60 mentors and 200 boys in the program in the Midlands, but they are trying to grow the program. Finkley is working to start a branch of Big Homie Lil Homie in the Charleston area.

With the money from The Ellen Degeneres Show, Finkley said the group will increase programming with more trips, add to assistance funds for families, support families during the holiday season and offer more life skills classes.

Since the show, Finkley said more mentors and mentees signed up for the program and donations poured in.

“It’s all about having that male figure in their life to, you know, just be there to motivate and encourage and inspire them. I remember my mom always saying, as I began to come of age, even though it wasn’t hard to raise me as a male, she could not raise me on certain aspects to be a man,” said Finkley.

Desreta Harris and her son Jabari, 7, joined Big Homie Lil Homie after seeing it on Facebook. For Harris, the ability to raise her son with the help of a community was invaluable.

“I have the ability to kind of pick other people’s brains and kind of see what other people do, just to have another point of view,” said Harris.

After the death of Black Panther actor and South Carolina native Chadwick Boseman in August, Harris said that Stroud Facetimed Jabari and asked how he was feeling, knowing Black Panther was his favorite superhero.

“We learn to be nice to other people and respect people,” said Jabari.

Jabari said that his favorite thing to do with Stroud is play basketball. Jabari is always Michael Jordan and Stroud is LeBron James. Backstage at the Ellen show, Stroud made sure to call his lil homie.