Darryll Starks brings over 15 years of experience working with youth and is now self-employed as a social entrepreneur after recently resigning from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta after 13 years of service. Starks, a native of Dayton, Ohio earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in Agricultural Engineering Technology from Fort Valley State University. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1987 and immediately got involved within his community by joining the Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization. After feeling like he was not doing enough to make a difference in his community, Starks gave up a successful six-year career with IBM in Atlanta and joined forces with the Boys & Girls Clubs because he was compelled to do more to address the vast array of issues effecting and destroying youth and families. In fact, his desire and commitment to devote more of his time, talents and energies working with troubled and disadvantaged youth in the inner city was so strong, he took a substantial cut in pay and accepted a part-time position as a Case Manager for a grant-funded program designed to serve status offenders from the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice and youth performing poorly in school. Starks gained a reputation for providing top-notch programs and services for youth ages 13-18. During his career he has written and received grant funding in excess of $50,000 to help implement teen initiatives within the Club and community and served a key role in a four-year partnership with a local organization that serves refugee youth, largely of African descent, which resulted in over 60 non-American teens joining the Club and participating in Club programs and activities. He also developed and implemented an abstinence-based curriculum entitled READY & Waiting, which was designed to promote abstinence to teen girls. Starks is an active mentor within the community and volunteers much of his time with various grass roots organizations serving at-risk and disadvantaged youth. He also has extensive knowledge in developing and implementing youth programs and conferences. Starks, an accomplished athlete in both track and football, experienced his first “fifteen minutes of fame” when he had an opportunity to play professional football for the Chicago Bears in 1987 during the shortened strike season. Off of the field and track, he has received numerous awards at IBM for submitting ideas and multiple honors with Boys & Girls Clubs including Staff Member of the Year and the elite Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta C.A.R.E. Award. Clifford Adika Trimble, Jr. has over 16 years of experience working with youth from various backgrounds as an educator for Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County School System (Georgia), Hattiesburg Public School District (Mississippi), and a program director and teen coordinator for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Maryland, and the S. L. Jones Boys & Girls Club in Metro Atlanta, respectively. Affectionately known as Brutha Adika, he has founded and consulted with several African-centered rite of passage programs designed to empower, encourage, and instill values, respect, and self-worth into young African American men, ages 9-25. He has served the Atlanta metropolitan counties of Rockdale, Newton, and DeKalb in areas of providing both juvenile court and Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice services. Brutha Adika obtained his Master’s in Social Work degree from the University of Georgia with a concentration in nonprofit management where he has critically analyzed human behavior theories relative to bio-psychosocial variables that affect African American male adolescent behavior. This veteran educator, social worker, ordained youth minister, and anointed musician is currently employed with DeKalb County Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) as a Social Services Case Manager Specialist where he fights for permanency in the lives of children and youth. Some responsibilities include supervising and facilitating visits between children and their birth parents, testifying in court regarding the status of the parent’s progress towards reuniting with the child(ren), and; working collaboratively with other youth development professionals from human services agencies and organizations. Brutha Adika believes that, with the knowledge base and dedication of our schoolteachers, community activists, law enforcement officers, caring professionals, religious leaders, case managers, etc., we can create the destiny of disadvantaged, disgusted, decimated, and devalued young men to be one that is illuminated by the joy of educating, mentoring, thinking critically, and assuming moral and social responsibilities.

2005 Hobson Foundation - Dream Grant 1st Place Winner