Cory Long: Making a Change in Chester

Cory Long found his life’s purpose under the rainbow disco ball at CN Skate Palace in Aston. 

It was 2003 and, at age 27, Long had recently moved back to Chester, his hometown. He started DJ-ing youth skating events. “I got a ton of kids that came out and packed the skating rink,” he recalls. “They called me Uncle Cory and embraced me so much that it just warmed my heart.” 

Long realized how important it was for Black kids to have African American role models in their community. “That was the birth of Team MAC,” he says.

Inspired by his then 9-year-old daughter, and undergoing a spiritual awakening, Long founded Team MAC — a grassroots mentoring program — in 2004. MAC stands for “making a change,” and over the last 16 years the program has evolved into an effective and far-reaching nonprofit, now called Making a Change Group (MAC Group). Its goal is to mitigate the challenges of growing up in a city with high rates of crime, poverty, unemployment, and underemployment. Through mentoring sessions that focus primarily on social and emotional learning, Long and his team aim to prove to Chester’s youth that they are more than a reflection of the troubled city where they’re growing up. 

Better Role Models 

Long credits music with helping him find his way in life. “I was the oldest out of my siblings, and the influences around me personally were drug dealers,” he recalls. “That’s who I looked up to.” He had his first run-in with the law when he was 13, after being caught handling a gun a classmate brought to school. He was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest. 

But music gave him a different path. By the time he graduated from high school, Long had become a well-known DJ with a high-tempo, rebellious, nightclub lifestyle. “That was my way out of Chester,” he says. “My way out of the street life.”

Now, Long works to provide better role models for Chester’s young people.

The first mentoring session Long ever held was in a small high school classroom, where he connected with students through music. Now, MAC Group holds weekly small-group mentoring sessions, in schools and community centers all across Chester, for elementary to high school aged children. Program alumni like Ricky Taylor, now MAC Group’s program coordinator, help Long design evidence-based curricula that have been shown to help foster relationships and build social and emotional strength and values. MAC Group provides safe spaces for students to discuss and process their – often traumatic – life experiences. It also offers workshops that teach students skills, such as preparing for job interviews and navigating the college application process. 

And it works with the kids’ families, and with the wider community, as well. Mac Group’s “Collective Communities” initiative includes Facebook Live broadcasts, every Monday through Friday, that highlight many of Chester’s most pressing issues. Anyone can tune in to watch Long and his colleagues and guests discuss topics like, “How to Maintain Your Mental Health During COVID & Crisis,” “Melanin Men Matter,” and “Race, Religion, and Relationships in America.” These days, MAC Group has also been providing much needed COVID-19 relief to many families, including warm meals, grocery gift cards and deliveries, temporary housing, and free masks. 

Tackling Gun Violence

MAC Group’s V-PRYDE initiative works to end gun violence in Chester. Photo courtesy of MAC Group

MAC Group’s V-PRYDE initiative works to end gun violence in Chester. Photo courtesy of MAC Group

Another new MAC Group initiative is a program designed to help reduce gun violence in Chester. It’s called Violence, Prevention, Recreation, Youth Development and Engagement (V-PRYDE). V-PRYDE will collaborate with the Chester Peace Initiative, as well as various city-wide youth development programs, local police, and others. Long says that the gun problem is so bad in the city that kids are too scared to go to school. “We’ve literally had a 16-year-old get murdered at seven in the morning, walking to school,” he explains. “And another one murdered, at 15 years old, walking to school. So this happens, and it scares kids from going.”

V-PRYDE is modeled after a successful Los Angeles program that develops conflict resolution skills, strengthens relationships between residents and the police force, and provides young people with constructive social and professional opportunities. Although the pandemic has slowed the initiative’s growth, MAC Group has distributed 1,000 “summer activity bags” to kids in 10 of Chester’s most underserved areas. The bags contain materials for art and games, as well as information about violence prevention and community resources.

MAC Group welcomes involvement from neighboring towns. “Swarthmore has a lot of people that have been very supportive and sensitive to the needs and issues in Chester,” Long says. “A lot of talented people have brought their resources, their time, and monetary donations to the table.” He hopes to expand that network. 

Long wants people to understand that they have the potential to deeply affect kids’ lives. He recalls a girl who spent two of her high school years participating in MAC Group. “When it came time to write in her yearbook who was the most influential person throughout your high school years,” he says, “she wrote a quote from me. I was the most influential person.” 

To learn more about Making a Change Group, donate to it, or get involved, visit makingachangegroup.org.