From Amazon: A Guide for the Village Makers: Creating Confident and Successful Children Through Effective Parenting is the book that provides direction to communities, parents, churches, organizations, schools and other institutions to rebuild the village. In past generations, the community, "The Village," bonded together to give advice, help one another, support families, and guide children in positive directions to create confident and successful citizens.

Now, there is a fracturing of the family and the village so that they no longer provide the support necessary to maintain safe communities and activities for many children and young adults. A jarring rise in violence and crime in the lives of young people across the nation, the scourge of Covid 19, food instability and poverty all combine to destabilize the lives of young people and put them at risk of succumbing to a number of societal ills. 

A Guide for the Village Makers is the manual to heal the village, bring it back together, and give parents and the community the tools to sustain healthy families, communities, schools, and cities.

An article about Hampton Roads Children of the Sun

Making better places 

Ask Abdul Aswad how many kids he has, and he pauses.

"Biological, or...,"

Let's start with biological. Two, a grown son and daughter, and three grandchildren.

Now the real tallying starts.

"Currently I have 15 that come and go from around the neighborhood," Aswad said. Add in those who participate in the youth program he helped found, and the number grows to the hundreds.

Last week, WHRO public radio honored that charity, Children of the Sun, with a Community Impact Award for Regionalism.

Children of the Sun provides athletic activities, mentoring and job training, and along the way offers disguised lessons in teamwork, discipline, respect, work ethic and pride.