My Purpose: Fathers Matter | Sheldon Smith | TEDxUCSB

Being the child of two teenage parents, Sheldon Smith did not always have the support of his father growing up. After pushing through his own struggles and appreciating the path his own father had to go down, he began to examine the importance of having a father figure in one’s life. Having spent many of the past years working with young fathers in underprivileged communities Sheldon Smith now shares the importance of father figures in the lives of all children and how this can break cycles of pain caused by the mistakes of those misguided young adults who never had the stability of a family. Sheldon Smith, Executive Director and Founder of The Dovetail Project began working as a community youth organizer in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood at the early age of 13. When Sheldon became a father at the age of 20, he was determined to be the best father he could and he knew he wanted to help other young fathers lay the foundation to have a positive impact and build strong relationships with their children. He created The Dovetail Project in 2009 to bring together resources that were lacking in his own life and the lives of others. Since then, his organization has graduated over 400 young men. Among many recognitions, Sheldon was selected as a 2018 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian, 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, Best Businessmen of 2017 by Businessmen.biz, 2017 Steve Harvey Hero, and the 2016 CNN Hero. Of all of his accomplishments, his greatest is being a devoted husband to his wife, Mary, and father to his daughter, Jada. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx