Story of Impact- Head, Heart & Hands
(June 2024)
The first day of meeting revealed young men, guarded, unsure and admittedly feeling jaded. Each with a connection to someone in their family who has been incarcerated. Each of our mentees over the course of time began to open up and share their background and day to day life. It became evident to us that these young men, aside from one, had very low self-esteem and lacked vision for their future. They all desired direction and strong connection to at least one adult who would show up for them in life,
Thrive Collective partnered with Brotherhood Restored because we believe in their vision to create a healthy standard of masculinity where men can belong regardless of their socioeconomic background, age, ethnicity or experience. An urgent need where the vast majority of youth are being raised without fathers. Each session allowed for the unpacking of very important pillars that should shape a young man.
We prioritized sessions that would position these young men to understand themselves and their place in the world by encouraging openness and vulnerability, deconstructing societal paradigms of manhood, and helping them identify their unique gifts and talents while exploring their –Identity, Community, Purpose and Action.
In our gatherings, focusing on Community we facilitated positive interactions among our mentees and the community by developing and elevating awareness of various relevant programs/events that encourage participation, collaboration, and unity. As we explored the topic of Purpose and vision, which was a very important topic to this particular group of mentees, we were able to empower young men to pursue purpose by broadening their perspectives of the world and introducing them to a wide range of education, career, and community leadership opportunities. One such mentee, Fiery was so determined to be a part of the military, was so grateful to have a space to discuss his future with his mentor who supported and didn’t discourage him. He was no longer alone to share his passion to serve his country, Many of these young men desired to take action but didn’t know how. Our mentors designed sessions to enable our mentees to put key learnings into practice and simple steps to establish meaningful ways to serve others establish networks by securing summer study, internship, and service programs that align with their unique passions and skill sets. Always mindful of ways to capitalize and elevate developmental assets they already possess that simply needed to be realized, affirmed and encouraged. While most of our mentees did not value their school community or feel safe at school, it became clear they each possessed achievement motivation and despite low self- esteem. They still held onto hope and clung to a positive view of their own personal future. Hope and opportunity was at the center of each session. Potential and possibility became the anthem. Both internal and external assets within each mentee demystified the cloud of hopelessness that previously followed them. Each gathering over of the year strengthened our mentees and our mentors, a reciprocity that fostered relationships and mindsets where our mentees understood how to engage their own mind and the minds of others thus empowered to build a positive future from Head to Heart to Hands.
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