Mark Hudson on Growing Boys into Whole People with 100 Black Men

When Mark Hudson talks about young people, he doesn’t start with careers, college, or test scores.

He starts with this:

“The important part for our young people, especially in this highly politicized, highly socialized, highly digital society, is that they become complete people and that we recognize them as people and not students, not children.”

Mark is an educator, mentor, longtime school principal, and now a leader at a juvenile correctional center in Richmond, Virginia. He also serves as Mentoring Vice President for the Virginia Peninsula chapter of 100 Black Men, a national organization with a clear mission:

“To improve the community and enhance education and economic empowerment for African-Americans.”

On Village Talks with host Damien Howard, Mark unpacked what that mission looks like on the ground in Hampton–Newport News, why they still proudly carry the name 100 Black Men in a tense political climate, and what he believes today’s youth most need from the adults around them.

This conversation offers a clear window into what sustainable, community-rooted mentoring can be.

Holding the line in a tense political climate

Damien opened with a hard question: in a moment where programs explicitly serving Black boys can lose funding or face backlash, why stay committed to the name and mission of 100 Black Men?

Mark didn’t hesitate.

“Our mission is…not gonna change because it's important work.”

At the same time, he pushed back on the assumption that focusing on Black boys means excluding everyone else.

Yes, the mission is centered on African-American communities. But in practice, their chapter is intentionally inclusive:

“The community is us and we are the community. It also includes young ladies. We have young ladies in our mentoring circle. We have people of other ethnic backgrounds in our mentoring circles.”

The name stays. The mission stays. The door stays open.

For youth-development leaders navigating similar pressures, Mark’s stance is instructive: you can stay honest about who you center and invite others in, as long as your mission is clear and your practice is consistent with your values.

What makes the Virginia Peninsula chapter different

100 Black Men is a national and even international network. So Damien asked what’s unique about Mark’s chapter in Hampton–Newport News.

Mark highlighted two distinct choices:

1. Bringing young women fully into the circle

Many people assume 100 Black Men only serves boys. Mark’s chapter made a different call.

“We offer services to young ladies and we're one of the few organizations that offer that mentoring experience for the young ladies.”

Why? Because healthy young men need to know how to respectfully interact with young women, and vice versa.

“We see that as a problem in society where we mistreat our young ladies sometimes, misunderstand our young ladies almost all the time.”

So they create spaces where young men and young women practice:

• Productive interaction
• Socially acceptable behavior
• Mutual respect and connection

This isn’t an “add-on.” It’s part of the core mentoring experience.

2. Starting earlier and staying longer

Most mentoring programs, Mark noted, begin at 13 or 14.

His chapter starts at age 8.

“We start our kids at eight. So they go from eight to 18… We get to see our young people, if they stay with us, grow over seven, eight, nine year, 10 year period.”

That early start and long runway changes the relationship. It shifts mentoring from a short-term intervention to a long-term presence in a child’s life.

For organizations used to one- or two-year program cycles, this is a very different design choice—and it shows up in the stability and depth of connection their mentees experience.

Collegiate 100: Near-peer mentors that actually land

Damien’s wife had recently shared an editorial highlighting Hampton University as one of the top HBCUs for placing graduates in well-paying roles. With such a strong higher-ed presence in the region, he asked how 100 Black Men is leveraging local colleges for their youth.

Mark’s answer: Collegiate 100.

Their chapter recently launched a Collegiate 100 group at Hampton University, led in part by professional staff who are also members of the chapter, including their president, Darren Spencer.

These aren’t just volunteers—they are near-peer mentors.

“They do more for us than we do for them because the young people who come over, 18, 19, 20-year-olds, talking to our mentees is a much more powerful statement than a 58-year-old or a 38-year-old having those same conversations.”

The impact:

• College students support mentoring sessions.
• They model what’s just “one step ahead” for high school youth.
• They run community service projects both on campus and in the broader community.

For Damien, now 42, the gap between his world and his daughter’s is clear every time she tells him his slang is outdated.

Mark is realistic about that same gap. Older mentors bring wisdom. College mentors bring relevance. A strong program needs both.

If you’re running a youth program near a college or HBCU, Mark’s model is worth studying: formalize the relationship, give students a clear role, and let them lead where their voice is strongest.

The real barrier: agency without perseverance

With decades of experience as a teacher, principal, mentor, and now correctional educator, Mark has seen young people from every angle of the system.

When Damien asked him about the key barrier holding youth back, Mark didn’t blame the kids.

He named a mismatch between access and development.

Today’s young people:

• Know more than previous generations at their age.
• Have near-instant access to information.
• Rarely have to struggle to get that information.

“They're way smarter than we were. They have way more information… I think the problem is they didn't have to do anything. They get the information instantly… So that internal agency is kind of almost a false sense of being capable. I can do, I do know, but they didn't have to work to get it.”

The result? When a path breaks down or a plan fails, many youth shut down. They’re not lacking intelligence—they’re lacking practiced perseverance.

Mark’s questions for educators and youth workers are pointed:

“Are we teaching perseverance? Are we teaching resilience? Is there a success-by-failure kind of mentality?”

His answer is to normalize “productive struggle.”

“Hey, go ahead and fail. Go ahead and struggle. That productive struggle is what builds character.”

Damien connected this to his own daughter’s transition from middle school to high school. For the first time, she told him, “Dad, I don’t know how to study”—not because she wasn’t capable, but because she’d never really had to.

When the first real academic wall appeared, the skill gap wasn’t content knowledge. It was how to struggle well.

For leaders building or selecting programs, Mark’s perspective is a challenge: if our models never ask young people to push through difficulty, we may be setting them up to fail when life stops being easy.

What consistent presence really does for a child

At one point, Damien painted a simple scene:

A young Black boy walks into a 100 Black Men session and keeps seeing Mark and the other “OGs” and “uncs” in the room, week after week.

What does that do to his mindset and sense of self?

Mark’s answer is both humble and powerful.

“It's something that you can't really measure. And I think what it does for them is to say, Hey, somebody's here.”

He pushed against the stereotype that mentees all come from one type of background.

“People look at mentoring as…a single parent home, maybe impoverished, maybe struggling socially and behaviorally. But that's not it. So we serve everybody and we literally have all kinds of kids in our organization.”

What they offer every child, regardless of background, is:

• Stability: “It gives them a sense of someone being there for them.”
• Predictability: “Whether I want to be here or not, Dr. Hudson is going to be here.”
• Peer role models: older mentees modeling for younger ones over a 10-year span.
• A safe, confidential space.

“We offer them a safe space. You can say what you need to say. I'm not going to run tell your mom or your dad unless you say something that you're going to hurt yourself… We're just going to listen and we're going to do the best we can.”

That combination of consistency and listening is what youth tell them they’re missing elsewhere: feeling seen and heard.

For nonprofits investing heavily in curriculum and programming, Mark’s reminder is simple: show up, stay, and listen. Those basics are still the foundation.

A broader village, not a lone program

Mark is the first to say 100 Black Men is not the only group doing good work.

He name-checked organizations like 200+ Men and the service of fraternities and sororities, and envisioned a broader “dashboard” of community partners aligned around a few core pillars:

• Mentoring
• Education
• Economic empowerment
• Health and wellness

When those pillars work together, he believes, you can move whole communities.

And unlike some service organizations, 100 Black Men intentionally keeps pathways open.

“We're just one of many that do great work in the community. But we're one that, you know, you don't have to pledge to be a part of. You just have to be interested. You have to be committed.”

That openness is part of why the network is so diverse and widespread.

For leaders evaluating partnerships or platforms, Mark’s framing is helpful: look for alignment on the core pillars, then ask whether barriers to joining are necessary or just tradition.

Practical takeaways for youth-development leaders

Mark doesn’t speak in buzzwords. He speaks from lived experience. Here are a few actionable shifts his conversation suggests for anyone working with youth:

1. Name who you center, and stay inclusive in practice

You can be clear about centering Black boys or another specific group without closing the door to others. Clarity plus consistent, inclusive practice builds trust with both funders and families.

2. Start earlier and commit longer

Consider how your model might change if you:

• Welcomed youth as early as 8–10 years old.
• Designed for multi-year relationships instead of short cohorts.

The goal is not more services; it’s deeper, more stable connection.

3. Build structured roles for near-peer mentors

If you have colleges or training programs nearby, explore a Collegiate 100-style partnership:

• Formal chapter or student group
• Clear role and expectations in your mentoring work
• Opportunities for them to lead community projects

Youth listen differently when the messenger is just a few years ahead.

4. Intentionally teach perseverance, not just skills

Ask in your programs:

• Where do youth get to practice “productive struggle”?
• How do we normalize failure and trying again?
• Are we giving answers too quickly because it feels efficient?

Design experiences where effort, setbacks, and recovery are part of the learning, not signs of deficiency.

5. Protect spaces where youth are treated as full people

Mark’s final word is a challenge to every educator, mentor, and leader:

“We need to recognize them as people and not students, not children… and recognize their uniqueness.”

That means:

• Listening more than lecturing.
• Honoring confidentiality within clear safety limits.
• Making room for their perspectives, not only our agendas.

When we do that, the mentoring relationship becomes less about “fixing kids” and more about walking with whole people as they grow.

If you’d like to see how organizations are using tools like SELvie to support and scale mentoring work like Mark’s, you can learn more at https://www.sel-plus.com/selvieai.