Frayser Pastor using summer jobs to mentor Black teen boys

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Frayser pastor is keeping young men busy this summer by exposing them to new lanes of entrepreneurship through mentorship.

Working at a candy and dessert shop is a pretty sweet summer job for a 16-year-old.

“I wake up around 8:30 in the morning, and I come up here,” said E.J. Reynolds, working a summer job with the Pursuit of God Transformation Center.

Within a few hours, Reynolds is walking into Retreat Sweets in Frayser to open up shop.

Retreat Sweets is a small part of a bigger mission. The entire strip mall across the street from POGC is also owned by the church.

“We’re excited about it,” says Pastor Ricky Floyd, Senior Pastor of the POGC.

Floyd gives young men in Memphis multiple Black-owned businesses to work at and learn from.

“They are learning inventory control and customer service. They learn how to work the cash register, and how to deal with customers,” said Floyd.

For Floyd, this is just one way he’s helping transform boys into men.

“I remember one Sunday standing up in my pulpit asking who has been trained how to be a man. And no hands went up as crews have been trained how to be drug dealers, credit card scammers, or gang members. And people laughed and their hands went up. But it was not funny to me,” said Floyd.

And the work these teens do is no joke either. One group works at the thrift store portion of the strip mall, while EJ holds down the candy shop.

“That’s teaching me to be way more mature for my age because I’m only 16,” said Reynolds. “I’m prepared for it because of Pastor Floyd.”