Black Self Help Information

Pioneer Achievement Committee Scholars

Pioneer Achievement Committee Scholars

For the Pioneer Achievement Committee Scholars, high school is more than a place to hang out with your friends.

Instead, they view it a chance to set the rest of their lives on the right path.

It's a message the Scholars - all black males - hope to pass down to more than 40 of their peers at Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School..

"This is about giving everyone a chance at a better life," said Kyler Wilkins, junior who hopes to go to the University of Michigan and major in computers and/or engineering. "It has to start here (in high school). You have to be going now in order to there later."

The PAC Scholars program was set up three years ago by Pioneer High School students to help shrink the achievement gap.

It runs as a mentoring program. Scholars, who are juniors and seniors with grade-point averages above 2.8, work with emerging and potential scholars, underclassmen with GPAs under 2.7. There are about 13 scholars this year.

"We're working to facilitate the transition to achievement," said Marshall Thomas, a senior with plans to go to Columbia University to study creative writing. "We want to be a role model. We want to try to level the playing field at least.

The COS (pronounced cause) Communities

The COS Communities

The COS (pronounced cause) Communities provides a place where you can ask questions, share answers and socialize with people who are seeking advice on topics that are vital to communities across the country. Come on in and get involved.

Why Participate in the COS Communities?
For the last generation or two, the world’s sense of community has dissolved and our parenting skills have broken down — this puts our young people at risk, especially young black males.

The COS Communities address critical issues Americans face all over the United States. The goal is to prepare our communities with an education and skill set that can support the success of our young people.

How did the COS Communities get their start?
Our communities began with a group of dedicated citizens that were ready and willing to deal with the serious issues that face our youth today. From three and a half years of town hall meetings hosted by Bill Cosby — Cosby Call-Outs — we learned a lot about what issues are most pressing in the United States today. We listed five issues that outline different cases where this country has lost its sense of community. We then created five communities that act as forums for you to talk and learn about each of these issues. The communities are as follows:

• Get an Education/Skills
• Be a Parent/Caregiver
• Be Healthy
• Stop Violence
• Get a Job

We invite you to participate in our communities by interacting with others who share the same concerns as you. Come ask your own questions and help provide answers for others by contributing to the COS Communities today.
 

Doctors' 'The Bond' reminds us of resiliency and strength in family

Doctors' 'The Bond' reminds us of resiliency and strength in family

They're back - the three African- American men who made a spec tacular exit from the inner city of Newark, N.J., to medical and dental school, commemorated in their best-selling book "The Pact."

It describes their sworn commitment to one another's success. To many, "The Three Doctors" are outright heroes. The reason is Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt overcame adversity and then began giving back, daily, to the community. Each mentors young men and women who have yet to escape the surroundings and statistics of being impoverished African-Americans in fatherless homes.

Davis, Jenkins and Hunt's third book is "The Bond: Three Young Men Learn to Forgive and Reconnect with Their Fathers." It dismantles the stereotype that absent fathers mean failed sons as aggressively as their first book blasts the notion that young men from the projects are bound to fail. "The Bond" explores the durable connection between men and boys, in spite of growing up apart and sometimes ignorant of one another.

his book follows a simple format. Each doctor writes four chapters. The first begins with their memories of life without Dad, including touchstone passages - Hunt's decision to quit Pop Warner football because no one was there to help him suit up, and Jenkins' humbling account of asking a white classmate for a lesson in looping his tie.

In later chapters, each doctor reconsiders his life and the men who shaped it. One, "Mr. Charles," taught the finer points of dressing to all three youngsters; Reggie Brown's martial arts classes helped Davis with self-discipline, focus and responsibility. Without cliche, the doctors quietly document that it takes a village of men to raise a boy to manhood.

 

Black Gives Back

Black Gives Back

A Blog Dedicated to Philanthropy in the Black Community.

Hat tip: Booker Rising

Pathways For Kids

Pathways For Kids

MISSION

Pathways for Kids serves to empower San Francisco’s Underserved, Inner-City Youth by exposing them to career opportunities through Mentoring and Motivational Programs, with an emphasis on Entrepreneurialism, Investing, and Capital-Building..

VISION

Founded in 1998 by local business leader, Peter Dwares and like-minded board members, Pathways’ vision is to prepare inner city kids for both higher education and a variety of career options by involving them in career exploration activities – in class, after class, in the workplace and one-on-one – tapping their imagination and motivation and inspiring them to explore their own paths.

Through the ongoing recruitment of volunteer coaches, Pathways also advances philanthropy in our community as participants enjoy the opportunity to give back to the kids by sharing their own experiences.

To date, Pathways’ programs have served over 8,000 kids and we are significantly increasing our exposure every year.

'Pathways' opens doors for disadvantaged city youths

'Pathways' opens doors for disadvantaged city youths

As San Francisco bade farewell to Barry Bonds last Wednesday, about 30 “at-risk” city youths said hello to Giants management, learned about the baseball business and picked up tips on how to kick-start a career.

SF State alumnus, Shakeel Ali made this opportunity possible through Pathways For Kids (PFK), a San Francisco based non-profit organization founded in 1998 to inspire academic achievement and career awareness in disadvantaged youth.

Ali, 37, became the full-time program director for PFK in the summer of 2006 and began connecting economically disadvantaged youth with volunteer mentors or coaches, who have achieved success in a wide variety of businesses and professions.

“I always had an intent to bridge the gap between students and the community,” said Ali, who graduated from SF State with a Bachelor’s in liberal studies, social sciences & ethnic studies in 2004.

Ali has been involved in activism since he was 19, working in local schools while attending college. After taking classes at City College for two years, he enrolled at SF State in 2002. During his years at the university, he was the Moorish sports club president and a member of the Black Student Union and School of African Philosophy.

Group talks about racial disparity in school achievement

Group talks about racial disparity in school achievement

It started on a playful note.

Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Katie McGee ducked under a desk and came out on the other side, at the center of a large room at Love Faithfully Ministries, a church in Leland. About 20 other desks flanked hers.

She went around talking to people and making jokes.

It was a way to break the ice on a subject that has upset black community leaders: the achievement gap between black and white students in Brunswick County, which has narrowed slightly in the past year but is far from closed. On Monday, McGee, other school officials and members of the religious community gathered at the church to once again discuss the gap.

In state standardized tests for grades 3 through 8 this year, 78.4 of black students were proficient in reading. That's 10.9 percentage points lower than white students, a gap that decreased from 13.4 last year. In math, 43.3 percent of black students were proficient this year, which brought the gap down from 27.6 percentage points last year to 27 this year.

Since the first meeting in May, cooperation has grown between local churches and the school system, McGee said. Love Faithfully Ministries now has a program that offers county students an alternative to suspension, giving them mentoring and 17 computers to work on.

"We have to get beyond the color thing," said the church's senior pastor, the Rev. Gene Brown, who launched the program at the start of this school year. "That way it doesn't become a black or white issue. It becomes an issue for the entire community."

Fathers told they're key to children's success in school

Fathers told they're key to children's success in school

WHITE PLAINS - Working 65 hours a week doesn't leave Bill Collins much time to help his son with homework and he can't always make it to soccer or football games.

But with data showing children without involved fathers more likely to drop out of school or commit crimes, the Mount Kisco father of four is determined to do better.

"I would like to be more involved. It's been a real struggle," said Collins, 46, a tow truck driver in White Plains. "I know it's important. It would be nice to be able to change it."

At the Black Father/Black Men Back To School Night at Highlands Middle School in White Plains, Collins and about 40 other men were encouraged yesterday to make their children's educations a priority in their lives.

In an audience that included White Plains Schools Superintendent Timothy Connors, state Supreme Court Justice Bruce Tolbert and members of black fraternities, speakers talked for two hours about the critical role fathers play in education and how their absence, whether through divorce or absenteeism, harms children.

Divine Pryor, the evening's keynote speaker, said the involvement of black men in schools was more important than ever because of the growing influence of gangs and a world where their children see a stint in prison as inevitable. An ex-convict who later became a professor of criminal justice, Pryor said fathers are needed at teacher conferences, extracurricular activities and in neighborhood streets counseling youth.

Ready To Teach

Ready To Teach

Howard University, an historically black college in Washington DC, has created a program called Ready to Teach (RTT) which is a national consortium created in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools and several other districts around the country with the purpose of increasing the number of teachers from underrepresented populations in high-need content areas in high need local education agencies.  So this is what I would refer to as a DOUBLE focus. RTT will attempt to recruit and train 100 (approx. 20 per year) recent college graduates and mid-career changers to pursue teaching certification in high-need subject areas, specifically, English, Reading, Special Education, Science, or Mathematics, at the middle and secondary levels. RTT will recruit and train a diverse pool of teacher candidates, with a focus on African-American males, via an alternate route to teacher certification program. This can also lead to a master’s degree in education. Participants will be provided an intense summer institute, field-based experiences, online pedagogy, subject-specific workshops, faculty mentors, PK-12 school-based mentors, and a blog. RTT will induct, monitor, and mentor the teacher candidates through the program and the initial year of their teaching appointment. Now how innovative is that!