STILL HERE. Antwan Brown

About

Antwan Brown

Writer. Speaker. Community Connector.

Antwan Brown speaking with his hands open, people gathered close around him.

Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Antwan's experience spans higher education, workforce development, reentry, housing, and community programs.

His work has included helping people secure employment and housing, pursue college and skilled trades, reconnect with their families, and start businesses. He has also collaborated with university leaders and business owners to develop programs connecting people with resources and opportunities.

Antwan draws on lived and professional experience. His approach centers on understanding people's circumstances and connecting them with information, relationships, and opportunities that can make a difference.

Book AntwanRead the Writing

01 /Where I'm From

The block

I grew up in a split home, and I understood what that felt like from a very early age. My dad is from the backwoods of Alabama. My mom is from Youngstown. So I'm from Youngstown, Ohio.

I was a kid who walked outside and saw concrete all the time. Broken glass. Broken-down vehicles. I didn't see fresh, bright green grass. We didn't sit around the dinner table together.

When I hear somebody say they have to be a product of where they come from because that's all they've ever seen, I understand. I've also seen it. And I know a whole bunch of people from my block who didn't make it out.

A hillside street of wooden houses above a steel mill, smokestacks in the haze.
IMill town

From the family archive

A young Antwan in a white polo with his arm around an older woman in a racing jersey.
Summer, the yard
Antwan in a blue shirt with his arm around an older woman in a pink sweater, at home.
Home
A young Antwan standing behind a seated man in sunglasses at a backyard gathering.
The cookout
Two young men standing together on a sand dune under a clear blue sky.
The dunes
A man in a cap and track jacket kneeling beside a young football player in a gold jersey.
Game day
A man in a blue suit buttoning a young boy's tan suit jacket before a wedding.
The wedding

02 /The Storms

What I watched

I grew up watching siblings struggle with substance use disorders and mental health disorders. Not only siblings. Family. I watched family be completely ravaged and ripped apart by it.

I was an angry kid. I was so mad at my mom. I didn't understand. That's normal, I know that now, but I didn't know it then.

And still, somewhere in all of it, I had the wherewithal to hope. There's something in that, and there are people who have to hear it.

Knowing the author

When I reflect on my life, it really has been chapters of a book. From mistakes, from failure, I know better. I've learned lessons. I paid attention in the storms.

So now I can write the next chapters differently. You are the author of your story. How do you want to write the next page? Not the ending. The next page, then the next chapter, then the one after that.

03 /The Work

The table and the street

Today I sit in rooms with CEOs and executives and business owners, doctors and lawyers. I sit at the table with a university president and chief of staff.

Then I go down to 49507 and meet with people who are homeless, and I talk with them and treat them the same exact way. This is really who I am.

Everything on this list came from my lived experience first, and from my network second.

  1. Helped men and women with disabilities obtain employment and change their lives. I've seen them change their families.
  2. Helped dads separated from their children by prison come home, reunify, and learn how to father.
  3. Helped men and women navigate life and get housing after being homeless on the streets.
  4. Helped young men and women go from a high school diploma or GED to a college education, or to a certified skilled trade.
  5. Watched some of them get an apartment before their parents had one. Some of their parents moved in.
  6. Helped some of them take the step to starting their own LLC.
  7. Helped executives and business owners write and develop programs that are changing lives right now, in big numbers.
Downtown towers catching the last light, the street below already in shadow.
IIDowntown, last light

04 /What I Believe

  1. God first.

    I believe in God first. I've developed a faith. That doesn't make you religious. There's a difference. But I have a belief and a faith in God.

  2. Progress, not perfection.

    When you make progress, celebrate the small wins. That's where my belief system is at.

  3. Healthy habits hold.

    Mental, emotional, and financial fitness are sustainable if you create healthy habits.

  4. Get off at the first stop.

    If you get on the wrong bus, get off at the first stop. Don't ride it to the end of the route and then decide. The return ride is much more expensive.

  5. What happened to you?

    The question isn't what's wrong with that person. Back up and ask what may have happened to them.

An old wooden mill on a stone foundation beside a waterfall, deep in green woods.
IIILanterman's Mill Mill Creek Park

05 /Peace

Peace looked like a problem

I posted a video of me just walking, when we were camping. So many people wrote me. Are you okay? What's going on?

My message was that I've truly found peace in my life. But peace looked different to so many people. To some, peace looked like a problem. The ones who could recognize it said, man, you're there.

I'm not hopeless today. If you want to know how I got here, I'll tell you.

Book AntwanRead the Writing

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