Jose Zayas of Chicago and Andre "Debonaire" McNeal of Minneapolis don't know one another, but the two men share a couple things in common: both of them mentor young people in the cities where they live, and they both have taken note of the positive influence of Chance the Rapper in their respective communities.

Zayas works with the Youth Guidance and Becoming a Man (BAM) program, a social-service agency that specializes in working with children and adolescents in Chicago Public Schools. "Within our curriculum, there are six core values that we work with our young men around: integrity, accountability, self-determination, positive anger expression, respect for womanhood, and visionary goal-setting," Zayas explains. "We meet with groups of 10 to 12 young men and we do circles, we do check-ins, and then we do our lessons that are based on those values."

Through his work in the Chicago Public Schools, Zayas has become aware of the work of Chance the Rapper's support of the schools and advocating for the arts, both visual and spoken, and more recently, computer education. "He has influenced a lot of the youth here in Chicago in terms of, here's a role model, here's someone who's actually pulled himself up by his bootstraps through the public-school system," Zayas says. "He's influencing youth here in Chicago to really challenge themselves, to get their education and then work toward a positive end with a career."

It's an influence that reaches beyond Chance's hometown of Chicago. Andre "Debonaire" McNeal (who, coincidentally, is originally from Chicago but is a longtime Minneapolis resident) is a music promoter and entrepreneur, as well as the founder and director of the Doorstep Foundation, Den Brothers and Deb's Girls, which provide mentoring programs for young African American men and women in Minneapolis by developing leadership skills and promoting academic success. "Basically, we want to provide opportunities for our young men and women of the Twin Cities through experience and exposure to career pathways and educational pathways," McNeal explains.

One example is McNeal's partnership with the Minneapolis Fire Department's Black Firefighters' Union, in which firefighters speak to groups of young people and then provide an opportunity to go to the firefighter-training facility to have a day-in-the-life experience. "That's one of the things that we want to create regularly with small businesses, large corporations, where it's not just your traditional career day, but a day where the kids can actually see what it is that that individual that looks like them, that has a similar background growing up, what he or she does every day for a living," McNeal says. "So that exposure helps open up their mind to the careers that are actually out there, and the direction that they can go, whether it be through college — taking a post-secondary education route — or through trade school and training in an area and going that route."

Like Zayas, McNeal has also seen the influence of Chance the Rapper. "I actually was made aware of Chance the Rapper via his philanthropic efforts in Chicago, and it helped me get even closer to the young man and his message in hip hop, as well as his efforts of supporting education and being civically engaged," McNeal says. "He's modeling that on a daily basis for his fans who connected to him via hip hop first."

Of particular note to McNeal is a recent public-service announcement for the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, which hosts mentorship programs to help reduce violence and improve the lives of young men of color; Barack Obama, Chance the Rapper and NBA star Steph Curry all appear in the video.

"It's one of the messages that has been around since the beginning of time: being your brother's — i.e. my sister, humanity's — keeper," McNeal explains. "That translates to your neighbor, your teammate, your coworker, your classmate. … Kids are hearing these messages in other areas of their lives, so to continuously have that embedded in them from such a highly respected public figure as former President Barack Obama to a member of this generation's hip-hop culture with Chance the Rapper saying the same thing, they can bring that idea home and model that in their everyday life, and that speaks volumes."

McNeal says that because Chance is a younger man, it helps the work McNeal does as a mentor of young people. "They can see that someone of their generation, closer to their demographic, is also modeling the things an elder such as myself is telling them," McNeal says. "That overall can permeate into what it is that they want to do, a direction that they want to go, by inspiring them and by being fed a positive message consistently."

It's not just younger people who respond to Chance's message. Zayas says Chance's work also inspires him and his colleagues. "It certainly fuels the energy that we definitely need in these times, to really challenge ourselves to give our best, to be present, to connect youth to opportunities so they have a brighter future," he says.

Beyond music and social outreach, Chance the Rapper has grown in other areas of creative expression — notably acting, having recently hosted Saturday Night Live to positive reviews. "Chance is not only broadening his audience getting attached to who he is and his message, he's opening up doors for others to walk through," McNeal says. "He's showing us the many facets of who he is, but in the end, don't forget his message: I'm a conscious hip-hop artist who believes in serving the people."

Zayas speculates Chance's attitude of service may have an influence at the policy level. "Chance is living out his conviction by giving back and wanting the public-school system to succeed," Zayas says, "and then for also helping politicians who are in power right now to do the right thing in terms of public education. So we're very proud of him.

"I just hope that with Chance's advocacy, maybe there will be others who follow in his footsteps," Zayas adds.

Resources

Youth Guidance, Chicago

Doorstep Foundation, Minneapolis (Facebook)

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