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Community Corner

Smyrna Man Enriches Lives of Vulnerable Youth

Tracy Dyson: "It's really essential that they have business skill sets to do whatever it is they want to do with their lives."

Tracy Dyson is a force of nature.

The Smyrna resident divides his time between his full-time job as a global manager at Sprint, being a meditation coach to war veterans who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries and his online radio show geared toward uplifting women of color.

Dyson does enough work in both the corporate world and the Atlanta community for two men. There’s no denying he has a lot on his plate, but that doesn’t keep Dyson from asking for seconds.

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Recently, Dyson has taken on even more with his role of "Evolutionary Visionary,'' or mentor, with Build-A-Youth, an outreach program for disenfranchised minority men ages 16 to 24. Build-A-Youth is sponsored by the National Coalition of Women of Color in Construction (NCWCC), and endorsed by U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss.

“The NCWCC was created in 1998 by Maggie Freeman to really penetrate a male-dominated world of construction for women and women of color,” said Dyson, a seven-year resident of the Smryna-Vinings area.

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He explained that NCWCC has always focused on youth, but it didn’t create Build-A-Youth, it’s official youth outreach program, until 2008. The goal of Build-A-Youth is two-fold, to uplift young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and to explore the new field of green construction.

Dyson explained that Build-A-Youth participants are from all backgrounds. Some are young men from impoverished neighbors throughout Atlanta, some have criminal backgrounds and some are misplaced veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The one commonality between all these young men is their desire to make a fresh start. Build-A-Youth gives them this opportunity by teaching them construction and applied science skills in the burgeoning green construction field.

“There’s a site we have right now,” Dyson said. “This site is a pilot demonstration of heightened productive flow of applied science, green design, green construction, environmental integration, software application. So what this is is really a sustainable environment. There’s a trailer on site. What they’re going to do is build a green facility, build a green building at that particular site.

Dyson explained that this one-acre green construction site in Decatur is an ongoing lab for Build-A-Youth participants. Each class of Build-A-Youth men will work here for nine months learning the construction trade as well as gaining skills to help them find a job in the professional world.

This is where Dyson’s experience at Sprint makes an impact.

“A lot of these beloved youth have no awareness of what corporate is like—of what business is like,” he said. “So really giving them ethics and the regimen to really be apt for today’s technology jobs. There needs to be an awareness of what the structure is like in corporate, what business is like and how to conduct yourself on a day-to-day basis. More importantly, it’s really what’s the best in each one of them. It’s really essential that they have business skill sets to do whatever it is they want to do with their lives.”

But Dyson doesn’t just teach them about business. He also coaches them on meditation. Dyson has been a student of meditation for 15 years.

“If you don’t have a sustainable mind, if you don’t have a peaceful mind, it’s going to be an arduous task to achieve anything in life, especially with these beloved youth,” he said. “So there needs to be a balance. When you have a focus on sustainable and a serene mind, you can pretty much achieve anything.

The positive affects of Build-A-Youth have drawn attention from throughout Atlanta. Dyson credited meditation when asked how he finds the time for his job and his efforts in the community.

“I make the time,” he said. “I’m a very passionate guy. I juggle my schedule. I have a very busy schedule, but I do it. But the great thing is when you meditate you can digest much more information and you’re much more centered and at peace. And you can achieve. It doesn’t seem so insurmountable so much. And really my desire is helping people. Being consciously aware. And in today’s world there’s so many people needing guidance.

Dyson finds guidance himself through the lives of the young men he mentors at Build-A-Youth. He was especially inspired by one young man who hopes to become a firefighter in honor of his sister who died in a fire.

“He comes from a broken home, not really the best conditions,” Dyson said of the young man. “To know this individual seeks an optimum position as fireman, that just touched me there.”

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