WDEF News 12

David, "when I saw him, I knew he was going to be perfect for me."Stephen Mayes, "He's great He's great."

Every Sunday the two meet up.

Stephen, "We'll hang out we'll go see a movie and go eat."

David, "Last time we went to the park and got on the boat, but first we threw frisbee, and it was fun."

Stephen, "Sometimes we'll meet some other friends and we'll just go do all kinds of stuff."

It's time both eagerly look forward to.

David, "He's very important to me."

Stephen is little D's mentor.

Stephen, "My father wasn't around when I was growing up and I always promised if I ever had the opportunity to fulfill the role that I thought he should have been doing I'd take that opportunity and that's what came up with Pathways."

Pathways provides mentors for youngsters age five to 16 who have a parent in prison.

Yvette Hubbard, "He lost his mom when he was five years old."

Yvette "It's been really rough because the only person that he really has like constant in his life is my mom she's been raising him since he was born pretty much." His aunt says he's never had a consistent male role model, until now.

Wynne Clarke-Anderson, "There are just so many needs that children have and then the people who are actually caring for the children, they're overwhelmed."

Pathways coordinator Wynne Clarke-Anderson says mentors get eight to ten hours of training to effectively work with youngsters in unique circumstances.

Wynne, "Things that they've gone through, children probably shouldn't know until they're a lot older."

Criminologist Dr. Shela Van Ness started the program two years ago...to help point our children down the right Pathways.

Dr. Van Ness, "Mentoring is a prevention direction to go that can save the public tremendous amounts of harm and can save money."

His family says it's already saving Little D...changing his attitude and behavior.

Yvette, "He really do need this because for the last ten years basically he hasn't had this so this right here means everything to him."David, "I want to see him my whole life."

Pathways currently has around 50 kids and mentors but has room for 200 more. It's looking for local sponsors. It costs a thousand dollars a year for each child.