Brian Jackson isn't your typical college kid. Although he works two jobs to pay for his studies, Jackson gives up his weekends and most of his other free time to coach 60 neighborhood kids in sports. Aware that the children in the Visitacion Valley housing projects have few male role models, Jackson's been trying to fill that gap since he was in high school. He takes his lead from his mother, Ruth Jackson, who takes in kids in trouble, runs a daycare center, and comes up with the cash to buy vans that take Brian's charges to games and cultural activities. Brian teases his mother, telling her, "You have your children and I have mine."

Brian and Ruth Jackson live in a house that stands between two giant housing projects. The Jackson family grows periodically, as it did recently when they took in a boy and his twin sisters who were living in the street. Although she has the means to live in a safer place, Jackson refuses to flee the inner city and its problems, saying that it is up to the people to solve the problems of their own neighborhoods.