A Mentor For The Youth: Johnny Daniels

Johnny Daniels, like many young Westside athletes, believed his future was in professional sports. Football landed him a scholarship to Purdue University, but a career in the National Football League did not follow. When it didn’t work out that way, it was more than a shattered dream. 

“I had an identity crisis,” Johnny said. 

Many questions about who he was, what his future would look like and what he would do, followed. Eventually, this challenging experience led him to pursue a master’s in forensic psychology at Walden University, where he learned how the environment in which someone grows up influences who they become, how people learn and how character is developed. 

“You learn to become what you are if you're around it, especially as a child, when you’re a sponge,” Johnny said. 

Born and raised on the Westside, Johnny was all too familiar with the environment young people are exposed to. When he was in eighth grade, one of his childhood friends was killed. Later, he saw another childhood friend lose his life to violence. Within his family, several of his uncles had been justice-involved or made choices “they later regretted.” 

“If you see violence, if you see that problems are solved by violence, that's the same perspective you're gonna have for everything,” Johnny said. 

Yet, he also experienced the beauty of the Westside – a community full of people who care for each other, where the elders correct young people if they’re doing something out of character or guide them toward the good, he said.

“It’s a community of people that show love,” Johnny said. “It was more like a village.” 

With this experience, his education and the life-changing experience that college football provided, Johnny found a new purpose: being part of the village by mentoring and leading young people. His faith has also guided this journey – the foundation of his work, his accountability and his actions, he said.

Leading youth could be a seed for change for his community, the city and beyond, Johnny said. 

A 2014 report found that African American young people in Chicago have higher rates of disconnection – defined as not participating in school or work– than other racial and ethnic groups in the city. Young people in parts of the Westside had disconnection rates 16 times higher than young people in the city’s north side. Westside young Black men were also arrested at higher rates than White and Latino young men in the city, according to the report. 

“It can be a prevention aspect towards the crime rate and the recidivism in our neighborhood,” he said. 

Johnny’s experience with mentoring youth started after his master’s program. For several years, he worked at a juvenile detention center in Vernon Hills, Ill. He soon realized many of the justice-involved young people he was serving did not have the people or skills that could have guided them to make better choices, he said. He became a juvenile counselor. 

“It's things that maybe a father or big brother would’ve taught them that they're just not familiar with. And then a lot of things had to do with identity,” he said. 

Later, he provided group therapy for young people in Chicago Public Schools and probationary groups. In 2022, he started Initiating Change for Self Consultancy, serving as a consultant specializing in youth development. 

Using his experience and knowledge, he developed a curriculum that was responsive to the needs and realities of Black and Brown young people. He also developed programs that could help justice-involved young people transition into a new, productive life. 

“The first thing I start out with is developing a foundation. What is the foundation? What do you believe? Because your foundation holds you accountable for your actions,” he said. 

Afterward, he joined Breakthrough Urban Ministries in Garfield Park, serving as a youth therapist before joining Tilton Elementary as a dean of students. He still volunteers to help justice-involved youth.

At Tilton, he has seen firsthand the impact of an after-school male-mentor program he created. Students learn socio-emotional skills, emotional intelligence and character development while having someone they can lean on. Through the program, he goes back to the roots and teaches young boys the lessons he wishes he had learned from his father at an earlier age, he said. 

“We learn about emotional intelligence, and we do life skills, like budgeting, like hygiene; things that a father would teach his son,” he said. “It goes back to the root.” 

Moreover, he is a mentor and a role model for young people – modeling behavior and showing how to make choices. 

“Learning how to respond to disrespect is something that's gonna carry you throughout your lifetime as a Black man. Period,” he said. 

Once a week, young people are also exposed to guest speakers discussing their paths, showing kids new opportunities and motivating them to think of the future. 

“Forensic psychology taught me that as human beings, we learn from listening and seeing. So what is it that we are listening to and seeing that is around us?”

He also guides youth as a football coach, sharing his knowledge and teaching young athletes skills and insights into the game that helps them learn about the sport and leadership. 

Being a mentor to young people is his passion, one that has also sparked growth in Johnny, he said.

“The kids really have helped me transition from a young man to a man just by allowing me to have a chance to mentor them,” he said.

“Some days I look at myself and think ‘I need not to do that because they’re gonna hold me accountable,’” he said. 

With this program, which has already shown promising results in reducing the risk of young men making choices that could impact their futures, he hopes to have a ripple effect among young Black kids, he said. 

“They can become leaders to help other people learn the things that they're learning too. It’s really a seed,” he said. 

In the future, he wants to be a full-time youth development consultant and keep providing after-school programs and career development opportunities for young people to reach their full potential.

“I truly got a fire in my heart for youth, and I understand and defend them,” he said. “I'm for our children for real.”