Solomon Jones Talks ManUp PHL Weekend Camp

solomon jones speaks on Man Up PHL weekend camp

Source: Solomon Jones / R1

As the summer is in full swing, kids are out of school, yearning for something to keep them occupied during the summer months. ManUp PHL, is well aware of the lack of resources that the children of our city face, as well as the seemingly endless loop of criminal opportunity plaguing our neighborhoods.

It wasn’t until 2019, at the funeral of his son’s best friend, where Solomon received a wake up call to take action against the streets.

“My son — who was 13 at the time — his classmate was murdered… he was 15 years old”. Solomon said. “When I saw that young man in his casket in his school uniform, all I could see was really my son, and really all of our sons. And I knew that I could do something.

On that day, the inception for what was to become ManUp PHL was in the works.

“So I convened people from around the city, around 400 people showed up, and we decided we would start a mentoring program to show young men another way” Solomon said. “To hopefully allow them to grow up to be leaders and take our place in our community.

ManUp PHL’s mission is to step into the lives of the men who are statistically most likely to be victims or perpetrators of gun violence in our city, and to provide them with the mentoring accountability, resources and consistency they require to change their lives and make our communities safe.

This weekend (Jul. 12-15) ManUp PHL will be hosting their ManUp camp. A weekend filled with ‘ManUp’ activities, including: tying a tie, basic literacy, managing emotions, and much more. This all culminates to a trip to Hershey park on Monday, bringing the kids back to being children, after teaching them valuable lessons.