By TJJD Communications —
Youth at Ayres Halfway House enjoyed a visit from a special volunteer last week.
Kai came to spend time with the youths because he has been where they are, serving time in a correctional setting and facing an uncertain future.
“I was in the very worst off of experiences at age 16, but I wonder what would have happened if a man . . . a role model could have talked to me then,” he said.
So Kai (a pseudonym) came to talk to the youth, if they wanted to talk, but also to cut their hair. As a trained barber, he could offer that service. “I know what a haircut can do for someone. Haircuts make you feel good about yourself,” he said.
Having a criminal history, Kai had to get special permission to visit the halfway house. But he has been living a lawful life for many years, after serving time in another state on an assault and robbery charge as a teen and young man. He was sentenced at age 16, some 30 years ago.
In the 12 years he’s been in Texas, he has dedicated himself to a life of service. He met Ayres House Volunteer Coordinator Monica Aikharaekpen while the two were volunteering for Church Under the Bridge, a San Antonio ministry. Under the Bridge volunteers help feed and clothe some of the most impoverished people living on the streets. Kai talked with Aikharaekpen about his other volunteer work in prisons and jails and she invited him to Ayres.
Aikharaekpen saw that Kai could be a “credible messenger,” someone who shares a similar history with many of the youth in TJJD and could relate to them, and they to him, on a deeper level.
She knew that Kai had succeeded in putting his anger behind him, and also had succeeded vocationally. He had been through barber training and also trained for and received a commercial truck-driving license. He had worked as an over-the-road truck driver for several years.
When he arrived at Ayres and met the six youth who wanted haircuts, Kai said he was flooded with “absolute empathy” for them.
“I was able to go back and love on the 16-year-old that I allowed to get lost,” he said.
He and the boys mostly “made small talk” and listened to music. The boys’ personal walls are high, he said, and he deliberately did not pry. That’s not the role of a credible messenger, he said.
But the experience was moving, and helpful on both sides of the exchange, he believes, and he plans to go back.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “It’s a blessing because, when in the moment, never in a million years did I expect that my experiences, my hardships could be someone else’s hope.”