Q: What was it that inspired you to do outreach towards young people specifically?

Bobby: When I started in the early 80s, when hip hop was still being birthed and going commercial, we primarily would use this music to reach the youth. Now a lot of people who grew up in hip hop are now in their 40s and 50s, even some in their early 60s, and so in an urban culture, underserved communities, impoverished communities, gang culture, prison culture… typically that’s the voice of the streets, that’s the music that they listen to. Early on we would be put in youth groups and schools. You wouldn't typically be given a Sunday morning service to rap at. We just took what they gave us, and so here we are, guys in our late 20s, rapping for younger generations. I think it just happened that way. Churches are typically behind the culture by 10 or 15 years. So instead of them creating radio stations, accepting this type of music in their Christian bookstores, pastors inviting this as a viable form of praise and worship, they tended to just brush us off to the youth as a kiddie thing or a teenage thing. That’s how youth became our focus. If you give us the future then we’ll work with the future. The kids are the future. That’s why I think you see Christian hip hop as something very strong that artists make a living off of. They’re collaborating with some of the biggest names in Christian contemporary music. We were rapping for these kids, who are now adults in positions of power, and they love hip hop.

Today the reason we go after the youth is because it’s a gateway to the family. People who are reserved from the church, whether it was church hurt or belief that Christians are too judgemental or too political, or not involved enough in secular or social concerns, the one thing that they do agree on is that if you’re helping their kids then you’re an ally. They love what we do, and the younger people love what we do. It touches their hearts, and that gives us a pathway into the home where we can actually impact the family.

Q:Tell me about the work you’re doing at Godspoint Mission Center and how you’re impacting the youth there.

Bobby: We’ve been at Greenspoint, formerly known as Gunspoint and now known as Godspoint, for seven, almost eight years. We were in a small apartment called the Thicket apartments, which we’re still in today. We went in there with Hip Hop Hope and we asked them for an apartment that we could use as a mission center. We used that for a good four, five years. In 2021 we were offered an 18-month lease on the ninth floor of a multi-tenant building to collaborate with multiple ministries. They gave us an 18-month lease to do whatever we wanted to do to reach the community at Greenspoint. We set up a recording studio, a dance studio, a podcast studio, and a shoe customization studio. When we set those things up it became a mission center on its way to a community center. That was phase one: Eyes on Me going from street level to community level. We’re in phase two now. We’ve moved from that building to one closer to the community in Greenspoint. We were issued a grant to buy state-of-the-art equipment. We furnished the place, added a game room, created a concert area, established a food pantry, and redid our previous studios. Godspoint Mission Center is at 350 Glenborough drive on the third floor. It serves as a mission center to the community, and it also serves as a hub for other ministries who want to reach the Greenspoint area to meet and use the facility.

Q: What role do you see youth entrepreneurship playing in advancing your goals of youth empowerment and community healing?

Bobby: In our location in Brookshire we have a trade program where kids are learning HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and construction 101. They’re able to learn the basics of that and then be deployed with adult supervision to work on houses and homes in the community. Sometimes simple fixes, like a hole in the roof or floor. We’ll enlist some of our church partners to get their team to come and do that. At our Sunnyside location we have a T-shirt program as well. The kids learn what it’s like to take those orders and fulfill them and ship them out, and see some revenue on that. At Greenspoint we want to do both the T-shirt program and some of the trades programs running. So moving from teaching something to where they can implement it and turn it into a business or a means of income can break generational poverty in their family. It can reduce the amount of unemployment in some of our families. Moms may be on welfare or working her butt off at fast food, just trying to make ends meet. In an absentee father situation, there’s not a lot of male role models to show them how to prepare for their future. I think we’re preparing them for their future by teaching them how to trade skills and arts and turning them into income. So that, when they enter the workforce, they know a skill which can provide for their families moving forward. That’s why it’s very important. For some of them it’s the only hope they’ve got. They aren’t interested in college. What are they going to do? Any avenue or bridge that’ll break up the school to prison pipeline and create a school to employment pipeline, we’ll work in that space. Otherwise they might end up in prison.

Q: What advice do you have for anyone who is interested in mentorship or service in underserved communities, but they don’t know where to start or aren’t sure if they’re a good fit?

Bobby: We can onboard them in a simple way. They can come to our mentoring night and just hang out and observe. They don’t have to dive in to sitting one on one with a kid. The first step is to show up. Eliminate all fear or speculation. Sometimes people think, oh I can’t relate to those kids, or they think that’s a dangerous neighborhood, I don’t know if I can do this for the long term, there’s all these barriers that immediately come up when people think of mentoring in underserved communities. Just show up. Worse case scenario, you come and decide it’s not for you and you leave. If you just show up, typically what will happen is you come and you connect with other adults that are just loving on these young people, and you’ll see the family atmosphere, the support, the love we have for one another and these kids, and you might get a bunch of big hugs from some of these youth that cause you to come back.

Phase two is becoming a mentor. You can sit one on one with a kid. We have a playbook. You can ask them how are you doing? Spiritually, physically, emotionally. The conversation opens up, and you can help them set goals for the week in that space. Kids deal with bullying. Maybe they’re making fun of their shoes. Okay, let’s set a goal. We can talk to the director of the mission center and see if we can get you some shoes that you can be proud of, and let’s set some goals for what we’re going to do the next time if someone makes fun of you. It’s very simple, basic stuff that they need. They just need people to hear them out, to answer their questions.

Phase three is where that relationship runs deeper. You start to invite them places. My family is going to the baseball game, do you want to come with us? That’s where you’ll start to meet the parents and the rest of the family, and now you’re getting deeper involved in transforming a life. Now you’re getting to know the family personally and you can transform their lives. Those three phases are generally how mentorship works.

Q: Are there any upcoming events or programs you want to shout out?

Bobby: In the first part of October, we have the Eyes on Us talent showcase. This is exciting for the youth who are not getting any recognition for talent in the performing arts or the visual arts, whether it’s singing, rapping, canvas art, shoe customization, dance, nobody is looking at them and nobody is signing the light on them. Nobody is giving them the big stage. The only thing that is shining on their neighborhood is the news cameras when the next murder or robbery happens, when a house burns down or a building catches fire. That’s the only news that comes out of these neighborhoods, so every year we put together an event. We take it to the George Theater, where the A. D. Players perform at. It’s a first class event. We pick the kids up in an executive vehicle like a limo or an executive truck and we take them out to the Williams Tower to take photos. We take them out to the red carpet where everyone is there to greet them. They get interviewed and then taken backstage where they get their makeup and wardrobe done, getting them ready to entering in front of a crowd of what we hope to be this year 450 people applauding them as they perform their talent and compete against the other neighborhoods. It begins at 6:00 and we encourage everyone to buy a tickets to support these kids. It’s not a fundraiser; we don’t profit off the event. We only try to cover costs. It’s a great date night, it’s fun, it’s exciting, and that’s the big thing we’ve got coming up.

We would like to thank Mr. Herring for the interview, and invite you all to learn more about Eyes on Me at www.eyesonmeinc.com. We are proud to present the work that he and the organization have been doing to guide the youth of Houston to a brighter future. Keep an eye out for more from Eyes on Me in the future!