24-year-old Glenn Pair is a hustler. What he is hustling however, doesn’t involve a sell or a product at all. Actually, Pair is hustling a purpose, an agenda and a call to save youth in urban environments who are disenfranchised, and on the verge of (if not already) being misguided. Ask him why he does it, and the response is a simple five point reply; “For the brotherhood, for the sisterhood, changing the livelihood and taking it to the neighborhood.” Ask him whom he does it for and the response, though even shorter, is powerful: “We Do it For the Hood”.
Born in Washington, DC, Pair knows all to well the streets and hardships that the students he serves have been cultivated in. Born into foster care with a family marred by prison time, underage exploitation, and illegal hustles and graduating from high school with a less than stellar .88 GPA, at 18 Pair found his way out of the streets and into St. Paul’s College in Virginia where he said the experience changed his entire outlook on what success meant; It just showed me a whole new world as far as black people in college, people graduating things of that nature…my right hand man got murdered when I was 19… and I lost like three of my niggas in my clique, two of my niggas got bids so I had to slow down a lot….it just changed my whole perspective.” Pair didn’t finish his undergrad at St.Pauls’, but returned to the academic realm a few years later after he began doing work in schools as a motivational speaker. After being able to secure a full ride for himself from Morehouse College in 2006, Pair created “Do it 4 the Hood” an organization he says is built to help sustain the community and keep activities present in urban environments. A key component of Do it 4 the Hood, is using college students as mentors, placing them in the classroom during the day and making them accessible afterschool as well, where individual relationships are established with the youth in the program and character development is nutured. “The goal of Do it 4 the Hood is not [necessarily] to put these kids in college, the goal is more so to make sure that when you’re walking out of your door, getting off of your job, these kids are not the kids robbing you, better yet these kids are the ones working that job at the airport…”
Five years, 500 plus volunteers, and over 2.5 million dollars in college scholarships later, Do it 4 the Hood has grown to encompass the Atlanta, D.C, Detroit, and Houston school systems as well as an upcoming 16 city tour set in place to help promote the Do it For the Hood mission. The program has done so well, in fact, that there is currently a documentary mini series being shot by a major cable channel following Pair and his camp as they crusade through the community. Pair, like any true hometown hero, however, doesn’t do it for the recognition, or the accolades. When asked how he’s been affected by his work with the community, he says the impact of being able to go into the community and create positive change has been a maturing one:
“I’ve traveled sooo much. Being able to go from city to city and understand that Atlanta [s’] different from Florida, and Florida [s’] different than Houston, [when] then only time I’ve seen these cities is when I was watching the football game on t.v. Being able to step up to the cities, speak to the kids and put my hands on the people…I’ve grown so much. [And]..I’ve always been a hustler, but learning how to manage business and put my resources in the right places…it’s so much that you learn when you’re actually in the field, that niggas could’ve never taught me…”
With so many youth already positively impacted and many successes under his belt what does Glen Pair have in store for the next 5, 10, or 15 years? “Well I don’t know about 10, 15 years, we take this one day at at a time…this summer we taking a trip to Italy and kids to South America, and this thanksgiving we’re taking like 20 kids to Africa…I don’t know how much longer I’ll be doing this though.”
Though Pair doesn’t know how much longer he’ll be doing his current work, the program has already grown substantially successful and for many, has been a saving grace in urban communities and neighborhoods where there are few willing to visit, let alone invest in the interest and development of those environments’ children. A uniquely crafted mission, Pair services the urban demographic in a way only he can, and support for his program has come from all over, helping Pair to create a level of philanthropic interest not typically seen amongst his contemporaries. A true hustler, Pair has already journeyed into several different business ventures that he intends to develop and grow exclusively. However, wherever and whatever Pair finds himself into next, there is no question that one thing will always be true: whatever it is he’s doing, he’s “doing it for the hood”.
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