If Michael DeVaul had a time machine to take him back to his teenage years, it would be unlikely that even his biggest supporter would predict that one day he’d honored with the NFL’s Carolina Panther’s 2025 Inspire Change Changemaker Award, but that’s exactly what happened earlier this month.

A rocky beginning

Growing up in a segregated Evanston, Michael DeVaul said he struggled with “traditional boy issues,” and by the time he was 18, despite having hands-on parents who where were members of the Ebenezer AME Church, DeVaul had been arrested several times, all for minor incidents like fighting with police and business owners. 

“I was aimless. I think you’re looking, between [the ages of] 11 and 17 and particularly into 18, You’re actually looking for purpose,” DeVaul said.

However, instead of continuing down the wrong path, DeVaul turned his life into a positive one with the help of his supportive parents, mentors at the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy and a few Black teachers who he respected.

DeVaul, now 63, attended Nichols Middle School and Evanston Township High School. He credited Black teachers in particular for helping him find a sense of self. 

Michael DeVaul at Evanston Township High School in 2022 Credit: Michael DeVaul

“I was very fortunate to have black male teachers when I was elementary school and middle school, my math teacher for sixth to eighth grade, I can remember him like it was yesterday,” DeVaul said. “I always say to people, a lot of the things that I’m able to do is because of the full support of having been raised in Evanston at that time.” 

DeVaul also grew up attending Evanston’s Emerson Street YMCA, known as the “Black Y” and lived on the south side of Evanston. When the city integrated its schools in 1968, DeVaul was in the first class to integrate and was a part of the first integrated class at the Emerson YMCA. 

“Integrating the Y and integrating schools taught me how to really coalesce and build community with people,” DeVaul said. 

A positive life

When he entered adulthood, DeVaul began working at the McGaw YMCA, later rising to become its Chief Operating Officer, a role he held for ten years before moving to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1999. 

Most of DeVaul’s work both in Evanston and Charlotte helped boys from age 11 to 17 to find their passions and have programs to create community.

Michael DeVaul Credit: YMCA

“If you look at the current state of the country, and I think in the world,” he continued. “Social isolation is real, and we have to be more culturally responsive as a world, especially as a nation. And so one of the compelling reasons to come back is to try to figure out how to be specifically involved and helpful.”  

Now 63, DeVaul, has dedicated most of his life working with young boys who remind him of his former self when he was growing up in Evanston.  

“I used to curse at teachers, push and challenge police officers, but here I am right now,” DeVaul said. “Evanston is such a grounding experience, because of how I grew up with my beautiful parents, but then being supported by the community in schools.” 

The Inspire Change Changemaker Award, bestowed to him on Dec. 12, honored his work with the YMCA of greater Charlotte, located in North Carolina. 

The annual award is given to individuals who “are driving significant, measurable change in their communities across the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative’s four pillars: education, economic advancement, police-community relations and criminal justice reform,” according to news release.  

A member of a YMCA program and Michael DeVaul (wearing bow-tie) meeting Kamala Harris (who was Vice President at the time) during the YMCA youth boys program’s 2nd annual National Convening in Washington D.C. in 2023. Credit: Michael DeVaul

”The Carolina Panthers honor is really a testimony to the Emerson Street Y,” DeVaul said. “I’m winning it for these people that they did something for me that’s really extra special, so let me try to do it for others.”

DeVaul is being recognized for his work at the YMCA, including creating the “Young Men Thriving” Initiative,” a national effort designed to build support systems that help boys and young men succeed. 

“In some of our cities we are connecting our boys earlier in middle and high school to programs, not just for your college careers, but careers in general. Because I think that’s one of the secret sauces for all youth, is to know what you think you want to do,” DeVaul said of his Program.

According to DeVaul, his program has around 6,000 young boys participating across 64 cities.

 “We want boys to who focus on schools and folks helping with issues like how you reduce suspensions, increase attendance and increase grades, and then, essentially, by ninth grade, all of our boys need to have an idea of career, and we have a real job platforms for them to get on, so it gives a grounding of how we can bring back the nation to focus a little bit more on boys.”

Coming full circle

After living in North Carolina for the past 24 years, DeVaul and his wife are planning on moving back to their hometown of Evanston within the next year to continue his work with youth programs.

“One of the pieces that is always pulling us back, is how do we do that for others?” DeVaul said. 

DeVaul has already been working with Evanston Township High School Foundation and gathering donations for the IKIT Program, which sends kids to paid internships for work experience. His goal is to raise funds for 30 students to get summer internships, which comes with a cost of about $850 per student.

”Pouring into the kids is kind of like my return on investment,” DeVaul said. “I’m trying to return back what I got.”

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