“I just wanted to teach them something that I knew.” Danville’s Project Imagine graduate hosts workshop
DANVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - Taking his passion for shoes and passing it on, Chaquan Wilson is hosting his first event at the Danville Library. It’s a workshop on customizing sneakers.
“I just wanted to teach them something that I knew, something like if they want to start their own business doing it, they can make some money doing that too,” said Wilson.
Teaching in front of a room is something Wilson never thought he’d do.
“At first, I wasn’t a big people person,” he said.
That was until he joined Project Imagine, a nationally-recognized program that takes teens at risk of falling into gangs and leads them to jobs and careers.
Danville Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Coordinator Robert David says Wilson is a model of what the program is about.
“He believes that he has the opportunity to do greater things, he believes that the life he was in with gang-related activity was such a small aspect of life and now it’s much bigger,” said David.
Wilson is finishing his time working at the library and has a full-time job in plumbing lined up.
Wilson’s grown from a 17-year-old trying out what he thought was just another pointless program to a 20-year-old man living with a purpose.
“In the long run I want to do something with shoes and still stick to that but for now it’s just keep a job, keep working, keep the income coming in.”
Designing his own path to success.
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