Future Superstars, “One Pass Ahead” program targets youth who badly need programs to help keep them off the streets and awayfrom negative influences, while giving them the tools needed to succeed in life. Through the 24-session program, 45 selected students will learn proper etiquette, decision-making, self-worth, how to work hard, and other skills that will last throughout their lives.

THE OBJECTIVES 

- Improve the knowledge of the students through workshops, classes, and community service project relevant to the young men’s life experiences.

- Improve the self-esteem of the young men by offering classes and workshops facilitated by positive male role models offering realistic attainable educational and career experiences from men with similar life experiences.

- Train the young men in areas that will improve the overall quality of their lives and motivate successful relationships,personal and financial goals, and decision making.

THE OPPORTUNITY & GOALS

- To provide the young men with tools to become successful through education and exposure.

- To teach the young men how to cultivate and celebrate their strength and knowledge.

- To offer a safe environment that allows the young men to experience lessons in manhood from professional male role models, through inspiration, encouragement and leadership.

- To empower young men to establish and enhance skills to assist in making life’s decisions and smart decisions.n To teach techniques to establish and maintain healthy relationships with male peers maintaining a level of maturityand responsibility.

THE SOLUTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

- Offer workshops and classes that allow the client to identify stereotypes and perception that others may haveabout him, as well as those interpersonal perception he has about himself. This allows the client to also reflect on how he has contributed to those perceptions. The goal is for self-reflection and the opportunity to establish his own self-identity.

- Introducing activities that the client may have never heard of or cannot afford in an attempt to expose the student to new things such as educational and career pathway workshops, etiquette classes, Mother and Son Dance, nutrition and hygiene classes.

- Create a safe environment and discussion panels where young men can discuss topics dealing with high risksexual behavior, self-esteem, toxic-triggers in relationships and social settings. Allowing the young men to hear thetestimony of older men who have overcome issues that the younger men can relate to while offering an opportunity for questions and answer sessions.

- Offer classes that encourage conflict resolution with healthy communication skills, identifying toxic friendships and relationships, and promote a healthy communication among mothers/fathers and sons.

Future Superstars is built on the unique strengths and talents of men within our communities who have a passion for leading boys into manhood. The strategic action plan for Future Superstars will partner with Drake Elementary tooffer specific services to the male student body.

A shift is needed in the approach as it relates to the prevention and intervention services offered to young men.Programming must examine and address the symptoms that lead to high risk behavior. There is a need to find
out the values and behaviors of the communities in which these young men live in, an attempt to focus on the ecological needs and not just that of those individuals you may come into contact with is essential while designingprogramming for high risk youth. It is imperative that in attempting to offer programming to decrease high-riskbehavior, empowerment is used as the foundation of such prevention and intervention. Many programs offered tohigh-risk youth disregard value of cultural relativity therefore are unable to build around the cultural and familiarity of those who are being serviced. While attempting to decrease the high-risk behavior of African-American boys it isimportant to understand the value system in which the boys are living.

For these reasons the curriculum for “One Pass Ahead” mentoring program was designed with an ecologicalfoundation. The nature of the program is geared to improve the behavior of the participants in order to benefittheir family and community as a whole. It is important that the classes, workshops, and activities are facilitated by professional men from the communities and similar environments from which the male participants reside in. The classes and activities are offered in the community as a means of offering resources to the young men and their families that they may not have known existed in their communities.

PROGRAM DELIVERABLES