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Robert Myles likes counseling "under the hood"
By Dorothy Cox
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Robert Myles has been doing adolescent counseling for a long time, much of it under the hood of a car. Sure it may be unconventional, but sometimes it’s just easier for at-risk kids “living in the hood” to talk about problems “under the hood” as it were.
“ It’s a little less threatening,” Myles says.
With thousands of children being funneled through the Arkansas juvenile justice system each year, more conventional counseling methods may not always work.
 Myles Boys Recovery Inc. Adolescent Counseling Program, of which Myles is CEO, offers another option. Myles estimates he’s counseled more than 500 young men outside of the Arkansas correctional system and as a corrections officer, over 3,000.
His nonprofit program is licensed by the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention (ADAP) and provides case management services to youth ages 13 to 25 in such areas as confidential drug assessments, urine and/or oral drug screens and drug counseling, and vocational and support group programs such as parenting, employment readiness, domestic violence, hepatitis support groups and anger management.
One young man mentored by Myles said: “ … He is known as Uncle Rob. He has been in my life for the past 10 years and … took me under his wing as a young child and he molded me into a young man.
“I am 20 years old and now a junior in college in York, Neb. With the help of his positive acts of kindness in my life and motivation I am now playing college basketball and enjoying my life. … I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for always being there for me when the times were great and especially when the times were hard.”
Another young man, now a successful businessman, wrote “… Without the encouraging words, advice or personal assistance that Mr. Myles has given to me from my years of getting my start in Arkansas, once transitioning to New York City there would be no telling what would have happened to me.
Offering advice
“… Over the years Mr. Myles has offered me advice when I had nowhere to go or when my heart was ripped from my body and tossed to the ground, and I can never forget the time when he was there for me through a horrible attack. I … hope that other young men like me are able to experience the mentoring that I have received.”
It’s not that Myles set out to be a different kind of counselor. But when growing up in Dumas, Ark., the young Myles believed his teachers when they told him he could do anything he put his mind to. And when mothers in the community brought their young, troubled sons to talk to the conscientious young man, Myles never doubted his ability to help them.
The first “youngster” he talked to was 13, truant and rebellious, and the mother thought Myles could explain to her boy the dangers of drugs and gangs, so Miles, then only 16, himself, did talk to the boy, and it worked. Myles had no brothers of his own, so he said it was natural for him to start mentoring at-risk young men.
Another factor was that his dad and granddad owned a mechanics shop, and Myles learned his way around a garage early and later took mechanics classes.
Myles went to work for the Arkansas prison system in 1992 as a Correction Officer 1. He attended the Arkansas Department of Corrections Academy in 1996, learning such skills as counseling, security, drug and alcohol management, HIV awareness and how to handle firearms.
The corrections job not withstanding, however, that early hands-on experience of talking to young men plus Myles’ expertise under the hood of a car have molded his way of relating as much as anything. It seems to many, in fact, that God has uniquely prepared the 36-year-old counselor for what he does, today, which is keeping young men out of the system, giving them confidence and helping them become productive society members.
He does that in part, by being someone they can relate to. Like many of those he counsels, Myles couldn’t read for many years, a deficiency he said he made up for by being a good listener. He said the fact that many young at-risk males can’t read often leads to anger and destructive behaviors. These youngsters, like Myles, learned how to mask their inability to read and slip through the educational system unnoticed.
Few listen
He’s also found that no one is listening much to these young men, not their teachers and certainly not their family members, who often are themselves dysfunctional.
He said through word-of-mouth and sometimes through divine guidance, troubled young men end up on his doorstep. Other times he said God will direct him to stop his car and talk to a young man walking down the street.
He offers to teach them how to work on cars and also offers his time and attention. And while he’s pointing out this or that under the hood, Myles is just being Myles — cracking jokes, laughing and presenting to them a way to live life without using drugs or without living within the confines of a gang.
He slowly pokes holes in their distrust and reserve, and learns that many are runaways, most are troubled at home — and some are emotionally, physically and/or sexually abused.
Many of these youths have been in state children and family services and were hard to place in foster homes and facilities. “These kids have bonded to me and my way of counseling such as vocational skills therapy under the hood of a car,” Myles said.
He adds that “The child learns a new skill while I talk to them about their problems. Before they know it they have discussed their situation in a confidential setting and by listening to themselves they also problem-solve and form conclusive thoughts about who they are, what they want out of life and how to go and get it.
“I am not a case worker to the child but someone who cares and focuses on their needs, [someone who] gives them all the time they need, and who teaches listening skills with an eager ear to help the child manage when they leave the program.
“We have credentialed staff [members] who deal with the case management component while I am the big brother component.” Myles makes himself available 24/7 and many calls come in at 2 and 3 in the morning.
At times he has provided temporary custodial care for youths whose family situations were too dangerous, too dysfunctional or both, for them to continue to live at home.
Pamela Randolph
Many times the parents, themselves, need help and that’s where Myles’ office partner, drug and alcohol counselor Pamela Randolph, comes in.
As chief deputy operating officer for Myles Boys, located at 7101 West 12th St. in Little Rock, Randolph also handles research and grant writing, staffing matters, business transactions and writes and develops curricula for youth in such areas as abstinence or teen parenting.
Recently she wrote an automotive vocational counseling curriculum that she submitted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Randolph said she frequently deals with parents who have no clue how to discipline, guide and parent teens who are out of control and/or abusing drugs.
On the impact of the program on the surrounding community Myles said: “Grades are improved, youths are reunited with families, and sexual promiscuity activities [are] slowed down or stopped, which also decreases sexually transmitted diseases.”
Myles and Randolph are not ones to rest on their laurels, however.
They’re dreaming big. Big as in the vacant building that used to be Brandon House Furniture at 12th and University in Little Rock.
They hope to turn it into an at-risk youth living center with dorm rooms, activity and sports facilities, plus areas to house personnel and staff. Myles figures they can get it up and running for about $10 million.
A tall order? Yes. Impossible? No. Not for a man whose counseling methods are outside the box and get results. Not for one to whom God brings at-risk youth to befriend and mentor, young men such as Myles’ neighbor, 21-year-old Corey Davis.
Davis has been coming over to Myles’ garage behind his home in southwest Little Rock for the past two years, hanging out and “learning what I can,” and said he plans to take an auto mechanics course at Pulaski Technical College.
“This could benefit me for my future,” he said. Davis currently works at a fast food restaurant but wants to become a policeman.
And to think it all started not with hanging out in the hood, but hanging out under the hood. Call (501)265-0211 for more information.
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