CBM "Capital City Cares" Mentoring Initiative

Concerned Black Men (CBM) will create a District of Columbia-wide mentoring program for middle school boys. CBM's 'Capital City Cares' Mentoring Initiative seeks to offer any middle school boy a mentor beginning with the 2007-2008 academic school year. This school based mentoring program, if funded, initially will include 150 boys, mostly African American, in grades 6th through 8th who are 'at risk' for academic failure, delinquency and lacking in positive role models. Specifically, the project will offer these young males the opportunity to have a one-on-one mentoring relationship with an adult male for at least a 12 month period, and hopefully for the 3 year duration of the grant. Mentors will be required to engage their mentees at least 6 hours per month that will occur in not less than 2 sessions. The program will have monthly activities (excluding August) scheduled for all mentors and mentees, and at least 2 of the scheduled activities per year will include parents and caregivers, who will meet the mentors, have a session with CBM staff to learn how to maximize the positive impact of mentoring on their child, and simply observe activities. CBM has developed a consortium including CBM and 4 schools in the Nation's Capital: Hart Middle, Ideal Academy Public Charter, Thurgood Educational Center, and Tree of Life Public Charter schools. CBM will use the success of this initial 4 school mentoring effort to convince public and private partners in the Nation's Capital to expand the program to include all middle school boys in the City. The City-wide mentoring model then will be replicated nationally for middle school boys throughout CBM's 29 chapter network. CA/NCF