Bill Rogers, CEO of Nirvana Ministries, talks about the mentoring project and its goals with parents, community leaders and youth during a reception held Tuesday at Martin Luther King Elementary School. (photo by Harry Kemp)

by Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr.
The second week of the New Year will see the launch of a unique mentoring program for African American boys that its organizers believe will produce responsible, culturally aware men who will contribute to the betterment of their community.

On Tuesday at Martin Luther King Elementary School on King Drive, that program was officially unveiled for community leaders, the mentors and youth who will participate in the program and the youth’s parents during a reception in the schools gym.

The new mentoring initiative, called the "What Is A Man" Mentoring Project is part of the Milwaukee Community Journal’s year long focus on the Black male titled, "For the Sake of Aaron."

The project will be overseen by Nirvana Ministries, a nonprofit institute that specializes in creating educational alternatives and support services that strengthen children, particularly African American children.

The program was developed using Nirvana Ministries 7R’s program for boys eight to 10 years of age. The program has been successfully used in other mentoring projects.

The "7R’s" are: Responsibility, Reorganization, Reclamation, Redemption, Reasoning, Restraint and Respect.

It’s those qualities that will be instilled in 32 young boys--all students at King Elementary School--with the guidance of 32 mentors from the fields of business, education, government and social services, explained the project’s director, Dr. William Rogers, CEO of Nirvana Ministries.

Of those 32 boys, the "Community Journal" will be sponsoring 10 of them, ages 10 to 12. They will be known as Terrence Thomas Scholars, named after the son of MCJ Publisher Patricia O’Flynn Pattillo.

The Terence Thomas Scholars will receive a stipend of $50 if they meet certain requirements, such as good grades, participation in the program and avoid being sent to detention for any infraction of the school’s rules.

Dr. Rogers told the audience that the project’s mission is to provide a year long curriculum of manhood training and mentoring.

The boys, who have been carefully picked to participate in the project, will each have a trained mentor. These mentors will receive mentorship instruction using a research-based curriculum designed by Nirvana Institute called, "They Don’t Know Who They Be."

Aside from instruction in the 7R’s, the young males will engage in related activities and field trips designed to reinforce the lessons they will learn. The boys will also participate in an economic development program called CASTE (Children of America Striving Toward Entrepreneurship).

The youths will also take part in an essay writing contest. The best essay will be published in the "Community Journal."

Josephine Mosley, principal of King Elementary, praised the program, Dr. Rogers and Tyrone Dumas, who has worked with King students in the past and who will help with the mentoring project.

"The boys (who will participate in the project) need to interact with men who understand success and will tell the boys about success and expose them to a variety of things," Mosely said.

"It takes a man to help a boy develop into a man. I have one son. I think he looks at his dad as an example of what he should be and boys are always seeking the approval of their fathers."

Dr. Rogers said the program will officially begin the second week of January of 2007 at King Elementary at 3 p.m. after school every Thursday.