MADE Men Help Detroit Students
A joint effort by the community, Detroit Public Schools, and police department celebrates its first year of providing strong male role models to students.
The outcome of that joint effort is the group "MADE" Men, or Men Affirming Discipline and Education.
In the past school year, the men who wear gold shirts and black slacks, patrolled near seven schools in the Osbourne High School area.
MADE Men is the brain-child of Bishop Edgar Vann, a pastor at Second Ebenezer Baptist Church.
"We wanted to draw together what I thought was an absent male presence in our schools, in our families, in our neighborhoods. And challenge men to rise up and to take a true stand as it relates to crime and safety in our community," said Vann.
Working with the DPS police force, the MADE Men have broken up fights and even prevented a stabbing involving an angry parent.
The program, MADE Men, involves 45 to 50 active participants who make certain students get to school and into class safely.
"Having an additional eyes and ears on the street as a tremendous tool for the Detroit Police Department," said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.
Chief Godbee said these volunteers are a presence on street corners and engage students in conversation building trust and preventing disturbances.
"One thing I don't think we can overstate, quantifying the number of crimes that may have been averted, the number of fights, the number of rapes of schoolgirls just by their mere presence," said Chief Godbee.
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