The Momentum Youth Development Project runs programs for male youth

By Alison Roach
Photos By PAMR

SFU student Ahmad Chamy and childhood friends Searaj Alam and Idris Barahmeh, all from Surrey, have started a mentorship program for young male teens in an effort to give back to their community. The program is called the Momentum Youth Development Project and involves a group of 20 young males ranging in age from 11 to 15 years old.

Starting this past summer, the three founders began holding events with different activities such as basketball and soccer games, or going out for coffee or lunch. Chamy said, “We focused mainly on things that would involve the community and give a lesson out of it; we wanted to show them what it is to be involved in the community.”

Chamy sees the focus on this age group as a way to prevent problems before they happen. He explained, “We saw a lot of [older] youth struggling with problems at home, drug abuse, and crime, so we figured if we pulled back the scale and focused on younger people, they would grow up knowing how to defend themselves.” The positive influence of an older male, that extra older brother figure, is an integral focus of the program. “The activities that we give them are kind of like a bonus. It’s more about developing that relationship with them,” said Chamy.

This community involvement came through in activities such as Momentum’s Movember campaign. The group hit the streets of downtown Vancouver to raise money as a group for the campaign. Chamy explained, “All our members are guys, so it was about teaching them the importance of men’s health.”

The program first started off at a small scale, with the founders first recruiting members through family friends, but the group has started to expand beyond that. “We stuck close to home,” Chamy said. “We chose people that we knew. Then those friends started telling their friends and suddenly we had five new members who we never knew before.”

The founders strive to keep the program affordable for the parents of their members, just asking for basic fees to help cover the cost of programs. The founding trio is also looking into applying for funding from some of the numerous companies in BC that fund community groups, in order to be “able to take on a little more [financially],” according to Chamy.

Momentum has big plans for the new year, already having planned the next four months of programming. These plans focus on a different theme for each month, with a goal of two activities a month. Themes and ideas for the upcoming months include personal development and inspiration, safety and security, and an Earth month. Chamy mentioned plans in the works to visit the Vancouver Police Museum, visit the BC Sports Hall of Fame, and get involved with relief programs in Surrey that plant trees in various parks in order to preserve green areas.

Chamy, who is a second year student at SFU, Alam who studies at Douglas, and Barahmeh who will be graduating high school in the spring, will all continue to be involved in the program, and with training older members of the project for more leadership-type roles. Chamy says starting and running the project has been personally fulfilling. He said, “I feel like I’ve seen results over the past couple months. I’ve seen kids change their attitudes . . . I may not be able to do a lot for the community, but this is something I’m able to do, and I believe that this is something that will really pay off in the future.”