Mentor Michigan helping implement Black Male Achievement program

Mentor Michigan has partnered with MENTOR, the National Mentoring Partnership, in its implementation of the Black Male Achievement curriculum.

Officials selected Detroit, and five other cities, as pilots to add input and feedback to the drafting of this new training program for mentoring black youth.

“It’s not enough to say we understand young black men,” said Steve Vassor, senior advisor for Black Male Achievement. “We have to focus on what black men need to succeed. Mentoring them when they are young is key to get them what they need.”

Black Male Achievement is founded and supported in partnership with the Open Society Foundation. The program works towards solutions to the barriers facing black men and boys in the United States: generating new ideas and best practices in the areas of education, family, and work, such as initiatives related to fatherhood, mentoring, college preparatory programs, community-building, supportive wage work opportunities, communications, and philanthropic leadership.

Mentor Michigan and MENTOR helped facilitate a planning session and review of a pilot training program with several Detroit area mentoring programs that have been participating, including VIP mentoring, Winning Futures, Detroit Cares Mentoring and more. Once initiated, there are plans to expand the program throughout Michigan and across the United States.

The training of mentoring leaders is designed to ensure young black boys have the critical socio-emotional supports to excel academically, to prepare for college and to learn skills essential to earning a living wage by coordinating and strengthening the field of Black Male Achievement to fully leverage quality mentoring. 

The program is slated to begin in early 2015.