Boys who live in areas of concentrated poverty have special circumstances and special needs. Our program is finely tuned to their needs.
-1-
Transportation
Boys in our program typically do not have any means of transportation other than public transportation. We pick the boys up at their schools or at their neighborhoods to take them to meetings and extracurricular activities, such as camping and hiking trips.
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Mentoring
Most of the boys have many brothers and sisters and a single mother. Consequently, the boys are left to raise themselves. We do what we can to fill in the gaps. We provide mentors who meet with the boys weekly and who take an active interest in the issues the boys are facing every day. We monitor the health of each boy and encourage good health habits for them. We advocate for the boys when they run into problems with the legal system or the school system to ensure the decisions made by others are in the best interests of the boys.
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Respect and Support
Boys, like everyone else, need respect and they need to feel safe. They get very little respect outside the community, so they look for respect within the community. And, without a support structure, they cannot fend for themselves. We give them that needed respect and support structure. The alternative is support and respect from gangs. The leaders actively monitor the boys and intervene when needed.
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School Contact
As much as practical, we integrate our efforts with the efforts of the school administrative staff and teachers to help the boys succeed in school. And we encourage the boys’ mentors to have open dialogue with the boys’ teachers.
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Workplace Environments
Boys living in areas of concentrated poverty do not have an appreciation of what a normal workplace environment is like. So, we take the boys to the mentor’s workplace during their mentoring sessions. Not only does this make mentoring easier for the mentor, but this exposes the boys to real workplace environments. The boys get to see for themselves how successful people work and interact with others.
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Cub Scouts & Boy Scouts
And, we have an active Cub Scout and Boy Scout program. We encourage the senior boys to be Boy Scout Leaders. We encourage all boys to earn badges and to go to Boy Scout Summer Camp.
