Prince Couisnard playing basketball with at-risk, inner-city youth

“Right before we moved into this facility, people were standing on the roof with shotguns and walkie-talkies, working for a guy across the street who was selling drugs and pornography,” points out Prince Couisnard, president of Inner City Youth (ICY). He points across the street, and says, “One of the kids we serve, his mother is a prostitute, and he sometimes sees her working over there on that corner.”

Mr. Couisnard and his wife, “Mama” Sheila, founded Inner City Youth in 1995 after he was laid off from his job and then discovered that out-of-town family members he had not seen in a while had succumbed to crack and abandoned their children. In response, the Couisnards moved from their comfortable suburban home to one of the most deadly parts of Houston’s Third Ward to help save the community’s children. Most of the children qualify for free lunch programs at school. More often than not, their parents and siblings are in jail, on drugs or dead. “We are dealing with a fatherless generation,” explains Mr. Couisnard. “Poverty shapes their lives.”

He remembers, “When we moved into our first apartment, we saw people fighting with knives, selling crack. Children were being shot. The atmosphere was just devastating. I came from a pretty rough environment, and the first thing I knew was that I had to take over the basketball court. So when one of the drug dealers came and tried to go for a layup, I fouled him as hard as I could. Knocked him down. He hit the ground and I told him, ‘Get up chump! I run this court!’

“After that we started a basketball program, and the kids who were fighting each other had to play together on the same team. Their mothers came to watch, got to know each other and began to build a community. Almost instantly, 98 percent of that apartment complex was involved, both boys and girls.”

ICY has developed a basketball league of 18 teams that compete from January through March at Yates High School gymnasium on Sunday afternoons. ICY’s coed softball league swings into action March through May and involves more than 200 children. “Our programs run six to eight weeks so we don’t wear out our volunteers,” explains Mr. Couisnard. ICY’s programs have become so well-known and successful that close to 400 people volunteer each year to help the Couisnards with their mission.

In addition to organized sports, ICY offers leadership programs, summer camp, mentors and tutors. Most importantly, ICY provides kids with a sense of family and belonging.
Mr. Couisnard says, “Programs are all right, but we need relationships. The key thing we need to bring change here is a family-type atmosphere. A family provides security and guidance, and a lot of these kids just don’t have that. We’re not a nine-to-five agency; the kids almost live with us.”

The Couisnards help children at school, take them to see doctors and support them through life’s transitions. “One little girl asked my wife to buy her some tampons,” recalls Mr. Couisnard. “My wife went and got them, but she was so disturbed, and asked the girl, ‘What have you been using up to now?’ The girl answered, ‘I’ve been using a sock.’”

Because Mr. Couisnard and his family are part of the community, people accept them. “When I go into homes sometimes to straighten out the mothers, we do it as a family—‘Now let’s sit down and talk.’ The drug dealers know me, and they tell their little brothers, ‘Hey man, we’re over here on this corner doing bad. You go over there with Mr. Couisnard, he’s doing right.’ They know they’re in hopeless situations, and they want their little brothers and sisters to get out.”

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