'I HAD THE STRESS OF THE WORLD':
A REPORT ON YOUNG FATHERS IN MASSACHUSETTS
JOBS AND DREAM JOBS
Almost half of group participants held full-time jobs and a third held part-time jobs. Only 18 percent said that a minimum-wage job was "not worth it" and that they were holding out for something better. Though most were working at low-paying jobs, almost all said they felt capable of getting and keeping a good job in the future. Fifty-seven percent said they don't see anything standing in the way of getting a good job, and 85 percent agreed that the "only thing it takes to get a job is motivation." Nevertheless, many participants complained about the difficulty of finding living-wage jobs, particularly in urban areas such as Boston. Finding a job with benefits was also a problem for them, especially since about half the fathers said they had no health insurance.
They say, 'Oh yeah, you gotta do this, you gotta do that,' but they're not even trying to put things out there. Like more openings for jobs, job training. Some places, like you got to go to school, you gotta pay for that. You got to pay for that three-month course or that six-month course. You know what I mean? Some people can't pay for it. They can get to work, but they just can't pay for it. It's just certain things like that that hold brothers back.
Right now, well, where I was, I was doing construction. Renovation, at the Marriott in Cambridge. Right now we just finished that one. We're about to go to the Copley. That's ten dollars an hour. That's not what I contracted as, but it's cool. I (really) want to be a tractor-trailer driver, go coast to coast, all that. I like to travel.
Some (fathers I know) don't work. Some of them just don't want to go out and do it. They stay in the house all day and get high. They just spend their time doing that.
It's hard for me, because I'm 15.... It seems no one wants to hire a person my age.
I know a lot of people who are, what you call, they like hiring and stuff, but you need a (driver's) license. With me, I, what you call, can't get no license. I got to go all the way to South Carolina to get my birth certificate, if it's down there. Because my mom died when I was 11 years old, and I don't know if she had a real copy or not, I don't know if she lost it or not, and my father, my so-called father, he's down there, but I don't know where he's at....so I'm in a whole lot of trouble trying to get a license and ID.
To be honest with you, I don't have no dream. Make enough money for me and my family. I'm not trying to get rich out here. I'm not trying to be no main man. Just enough so that I can survive to have the things that I want, and the things that my family needs.
I watch TV a lot. I like - you know they got that new show on HBO, that autopsy stuff. You know what I mean, I like doing stuff like that. They check your body, you know, to find out how you died. (I want to be one of) those kind of people.
I would like to run my own business, you know, have laundromats here and there, storage. That's where you make the money.... You start off, you really don't need an education. You just got to know how to manage money and work things out, you know. You don't got to go to college.
We need jobs. Real jobs, not packing groceries.... That $5.75 an hour ain't kicking it. It's not.
Based on the things I want, I'd need to make 30 (thousand) or more a year. That's why I'm trying to get into construction, and from there, I want to go into plumbing, so I can be able to buy a house, fix it myself, and rent it out, and buy another house, and just keep doing that. Have my own business, and all I have to do is fix the houses that I buy.
That's why I'm going to go to school and get my degrees and stuff, so I can get a real good job that I really want. That's why being a doctor's my dream.
Me, basically, I just want to get into the field of law, and be an attorney at law, and open my own firm. That's basically what I want to do.
About a month ago, I don't think I was feeling so confident and could say: 'Oh yeah, I know I can do it. I'm going to have it.' I don't think I was at that point. But right now, give me a year. A year from now, and I'll be where I want to be. My heart's set on what I want to do. My peers are around me, the people who's in my situation, my boss. They always give me input on how to do better at what I've got to do. And when I have problems I talk to them.
Right now what I'm doing gives me a lot of fulfillment, because working with youth in the city, talking to the kids, doing the afterschool programs, doing anti-gang workshops - I've been through it, so I can go into a classroom and scare the crap out of a bunch of kids, and hopefully they'll think twice about it. So that's kind of my way of giving back and hopefully preventing future violence and preventing gang wannabes. At the same time, I'm still in transition. I'm trying to help myself. I don't really know if this is something I want to do for the rest of my life. I'd like to go into the field of broadcasting. I'd like to take some college classes. But being a father - you know my biggest title is 'father.'
Introduction | The Project | Their Own Fathers | Becoming A Father | Life With Children | Family Conflict | Violence and the Children | In School | Money | The Law | Housing | Jobs and Dream Jobs | Improving the System | Findings | Recommendations