DETROIT (WXYZ) — It may look like a martial arts academy, but what Jason Wilson has created is a way of training that helps transform boys and young men.
It's called the Cave of Adullam – offering not just discipline, but love and his guidance.
"I changed the model. At first, it was all martial arts, but then I shifted it to just having a safe space where we would use martial arts to help you bring to the surface what's really causing you to make detrimental life decisions, or to lose focus in school, or to dishonor your parents," Wilson said.
Wilson is a Detroiter, husband and a father, who shares his own story of discovering what it means to be a man in his book "Cry Like A Man."
Inside the cave, he helps boys face unresolved anger, hurt and even fear, to learn to focus.
Makaio is 11 years old and he's been coming to the cave since he was 6.
"Why is faith without action dead," he was asked while testing for the Faith Stone.
"Faith without action is dead because faith by itself isn't enough to help people, not by believing alone," Makaio said.
His mother, Simone Cato, tells 7 Action News that Makaio is on the autism spectrum and has major issues with concentrating and sitting still.
"It helps me to stay more concentrated on what's going on," Makaio said.
Wilson uses what he calls "emotional stability training" to help boys, often from Detroit, who may have seen violence around them.
He said he helps them navigate the pressures of this world without succumbing to negative emotions.
"A man becomes toxic only when he allows his life to be lived through masculine attributes, such as strength, boldness and aggression," he said. "But when a man allows himself to be comprehensive, to practice loving, being patient, kind, gentleness long-suffering, when he becomes comprehensive, he becomes whole."
He also said that we have to stop looking at trauma as some sort of badge of honor.
"You know, I got shot, I'm tough," he said. "A friend of mine who wrote the forward to my book, he just realized while writing it that when he got shot two or three times, he didn't even cry. Why not? Because it's considered an honor or you're tough because you're still living after you got shot.
"The truth is that none of us should ever get shot," he added.
While parents say the cave is transforming young lives, the waiting list of boys ages 6-14 has grown to over 400.
They're raising money to complete a larger space on Oakman for the cave and the Yunion, a nonprofit Wilson also founded with a mission of guiding young people and strengthening families.
"I believe that the cave's mission will be generational. They'll be teaching their sons about what they learned about discipline, focus and anger management and conflict resolution," Nicole Wilson said. "I believe it will change not just their lives, but their children's lives and the community that we're in."
"When I see them change, when I see their grade point average move from a .8 to a 4.0 without tutoring, it makes it worth the sacrifice and it gives me hope that a child doesn't need medication to overcome hyperactivity, to overcome a lack of focus," Wilson said.
For more information on the cave, click here.
Click here if you would like to sponsor a boy in The Cave or help with a donation for the renovation of a larger location for more boys to attend.
