JOLIET — “We can be more than our environment,” said James Hill, of Suda Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Joliet. “My brother and I grew up on the southeast side and there were a lot of drugs and gangs, but we didn’t want to go that way.”

James and his brother Ron will be panelists at Bring Your ‘A’ Game 2 at 1 p.m. Saturday at Joliet Job Corps. This second event again focuses on steering young black males away from street life and prison and into college and careers.

“It’s human nature to look for better things,” Hill said. “And if the better things in your neighborhood are being bought with drug money, that’s very seductive. If you don’t see what you can be, if no one is instructing you or if you don’t have that consistent, positive influence, it can be a real challenge to do better than your surroundings.”

Sometimes, kids from good homes also fall prey to the streets.

William Little, 21, a Joliet Job Corps student, came from a good family but became troubled after his parents’ divorce when he was 11. His mom moved “back home” to Savannah, Ga., with him. His brother, just over a year younger, stayed with his dad in Bolingbrook and is now a sophomore at Aurora University.

By age 14, the courts deemed William “ungovernable” and his mother was searching for ways to get him back on track. He was in and out of schools and alternative schools, even five days at Romeoville High School. He was always kicked out for fighting or truancy.

He got shot at age 18. When he came back from the rehab center his mom tried tough love and told him he couldn’t come home until he saw the error of his ways. Homeless for four months, he finally figured out his game — and got back on track.

“I was asking myself, ‘Who am I? What is the positive in me that I can see?’ If I don’t see it, I can’t portray it,” he said.

Joining him on the panel is another successful Job Corps student, Marcus Jackson, 23, of Chicago, who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes and also was shot as a teen “doing things I shouldn’t have been doing.” Other panelists are Steven Evans, of Joliet, and Henry Woods, of New Lenox.

The 20-minute documentary by Mario Van Peebles that spawned the ‘A’ Game movement will be shown and five entertainment acts are scheduled.

“Thirty-percent of African American youth today will be incarcerated sometime in their lives,” said R. Dale Evans, of the Housing Authority of Joliet, who is leading the day’s activities. “This is an epidemic and we have got to find the cure.”

“In May, our first ‘A’ Game event attracted nearly 400 people,” said Job Corps Center Director Redford Salmon. “We want to build on the momentum started that day to let the public know that there are many resources already in our area that can help youth.”