By C. Maria Macon
Guest Writer
It is all too often that one gets an
opportunity to tell someone else’s story and doesn’t.
I am thankful for the opportunity and can ill
afford not to speak on behalf of our young Black boys. Not to mention the fact that
President Obama did an outstanding job of tackling this issue from the vantage
point of being in the highest position Americans can offer, the Presidency.
I’d like to bring to your awareness, The Males’
Place. You may have been introduced to the Males’ Place some 15 years ago,
because they have been around that long. Others may have passed by and failed
to pay attention and too few have made tax-deductible donations listening to
the brief tug on their hearts. Well:
The Males’ Place was founded in 1981 as a
clinic. In 1993 it was transformed by Reggie Singleton and incorporated as a
nonprofit organization in 2013. Mr. Singleton and the board of directors have
embarked upon community youth outreach projects that have already changed the
lives of young men in Charlotte, NC. The projects have played a major role in
expanding young minds toward community and civic involvement. Operating from a
prospective of intervention through self-awareness, the organization’s
byproduct is the reduction of the percentages of youth delinquency and gang
involvement in Charlotte and surrounding counties.
The mission of the Males’ Place is to serve as
a guided journey for young African American boys ages 12-18 as they transition
into manhood. While at the same time we are providing a comprehensive and
prevention-based behavior-health educational program of mentoring and life
skills training necessary for manhood development; thus creating a safe
environment for young men to grow experientially in community settings in North
Carolina and abroad. Our focus is on working with economically disadvantages
youth by offering programs that promote youth development, encourages
citizenship awareness, enhance leadership skills and involve family interactive
dialogue.
The project for which they are currently
seeking funding involves 20 young men and their chaperones traveling to Senegal
and Gambia, West Africa in search of answers to their cultural heritage. These
answers will help them to gain historical cultural awareness tools. The tools,
both visually and hands-on, will allow the young men to unlock their paths and
equip them in taking on leadership roles and dispelling poverty thinking
patterns that currently hold them in poverty situations.
This project is important because young boys
are not seeing a way out of the poverty-stricken neighborhoods where they live.
While they are learning about the meaning of Sankofa (“Go back and fetch it”)
from the Males’ Place after school training; the connection is not being made
by them toward a means of moving forward. The most feasible option is to go
back to Africa, which is many of our ancestral cultural beginning.
Because of the life-changing experience that
was gained in 2010 when they took a group of our young boys to Ghana, West
Africa; they are re-establishing their World Travel Exchange Program (WTEP) as
a moral fiber launching pad for young men who complete their programs.
This program is slated to become an annual
world excursion as funding and chaperones are available. The WTEP program
offers males an opportunity to extend and broaden their learning and cultural
awareness outside of the United States, which also encompasses learning coping
skills and exploring the knowledge of farming on a universal scale.
The
Males’ Place will impact the lives of approximately 248 youth African American
males over a period of five (5) years. They are equipping these young males
with the needed skills that will enhance their social and interpersonal
abilities and augment their academic performances state-side.
Approximately 85% of the program’s participants
are from low-income, low wealth, disenfranchised communities and in need of fee
subsidy.
There are few or no places in Charlotte for men
to gather and assimilate information which creates male bonding; such as women
had in their kitchens or quilting rooms where young women were able to acquire
“elder” wisdom and guidance.
Now, we have the Males’ Place, a structure
where we can monitor and foster self-sufficiency which will correct
identifiable unaccepted community behavior and provide a road map early in a
young man’s development
The programmatic vision to help combat youth
delinquency and adult apathy issues was established to respond to the lack of
community parenting in several disenfranchised areas of Mecklenburg County with
Charlotte being the largest municipality where 70% of its low-wealth children
are from single-parent households and/or families with one income.
We should recognize that today’s urban (and
rural) families face an increasingly difficult struggle to survive and thrive
amidst a myriad of social and economic problems. These social and economic realities have
potential implications that we can no longer afford to ignore. There are disturbing increases in the
incidence of family stress and crises in isolated areas of Charlotte (i.e.
single parenting, parental unemployment and underemployment, insufficient
childcare, increase in behavior health issues – drug activity and alcohol
abuses, parental incarceration, teen pregnancy, and violence). The proportion of children who are
undereducated, underachieving, and involved in criminal activities continues to
grow at an alarming rate.
Charlotte’s urban demographics pattern the
national trend. Children from poor and crises families are at double
jeopardy. They are the least healthy and
the most likely to live in unhealthy communities (low education, high drug
usage and crime rates); they are at the greatest risk of school failures; and
their family life is the most stressed.
According to the latest national polls, Charlotte ranks 47 nationally in
child well being with 27% of its children living in poverty. These children are
the most vulnerable and as President Obama recently stated in his State of the
Union Address, “I believe the continuing struggles of so many boys and young
men – the fact that too many of them are falling by the wayside – this is a
moral issue for our country. It’s also an economic issue for our country.”
Early on we acknowledged that we are allowing
young African American boys to grow up without having a clear sense of who they
are and what is really expected of them. And, they are not seeing examples of
it in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods where they live. Providing for the
opportunity, within the program, to travel the world equips them with a
starting place – their ancestral cultural beginning. WTEP also serves as a
natural expansion of the Males’ Place.
This year’s WTEP program will continue from
Dec. 18-28, 2014. The training process will begin Stateside and extend from an
itinerary package that involves learning the process of getting a passport to
the pre-preparations required for foreign travel. They will travel by bus to
the Douglas Airport and by air to be met in West Africa on the ground by a
pre-arranged host group. They will be assigned living quarters and exposed to
structured tours, schooling and academic & farming exchanges between the
Males’ Place group and young boys who are residents of Senegal and Gambia.
They will have a complete offering of holistic
curriculum of programs incorporating educational, spiritual, social, civic,
recreational, and cultural enrichment for the young boys. The Males’ Place will
integrate artistic expression as a means of broadening the learning aptitudes
of young men, while in West Africa.
Through collaborations with local businesses,
community centers, churches and the school system, it is our desire to help the
entire family progress and solidify a foundation based on hands-on learning
from a cultural perspective. It has been found that this program along with
other components of the Males’ Place will instill self-pride which translates
into civic responsibility.
As they engage the young men in their year-end
“classroom without walls” World Travel Exchange Program, they believe that they
are redirecting energy within young men and fully equipping them through their
self-awareness and discovery to take on leadership responsibility in the 21st century
arena and beyond.
The Males’ Place, Inc. is an approved 501c3
tax-exempt organization. The Males’
Place has an operating budget comprised of Grants 33%; Earned income and fees
20%. The World Travel Exchange Program (WTEP) Budget and operating budgets can
be submitted upon request.
The Males’ Place is currently querying funding
sources for grant and/or corporate support. They are involved in fundraising
activities and establishing an on-going vehicle for individual giving for this
project. In addition, parental contribution collectively will equal 1% of our
total budget
The Males’ Place has a nine-member board of
directors with diverse corporate affiliations. You can visit them online at
www.themalesplace.org or simply make a phone call to Reggie Singleton
704-713-3824.
About
the author: CHARLÉON MARIA MACON
Ms. Macon’s background is in theology, finance
and literary arts. She has spent 20 years in the insurance industry and is a
Certified Financial Planner (CFP), a Certified Grants Specialist (CGS), and a
Certified Nonprofit Management Consultant (CNPOC). She entered the insurance
industry in 1976 and became a member of the Women’s Leader Round-Table 1977 and
Star Club President in 1978. In 1981, she became a Regional Director with
Capitol Life Insurance Companies and in 1985 moved her successful insurance
agency to Charlotte, North Carolina to head up the North and South Carolina
regions. Ms. Macon retired from the insurance industry in 1990.
In the Interim, Ms. Macon founded the
International Black Writers’ Charlotte (IBWC) and served as its President and
executive director for four (4) years (1986-1990 and 1990-1995 respectively).
Her work in the nonprofit arena propelled her into the advocacy role for
nonprofits in the arts and in 1992 she won the Spirit Award for Arts presented
by Spirit Square Center for the Arts and Royal Insurance Company.
In 1994, she combined her background skills in
religion, the arts and writing to form Polish, Inc., a business & nonprofit
consulting, training and technical writing corporation; currently known as
Polish, I.N.C. (International Nonprofit Consulting). Currently, Ms. Macon is in
Law School to become a certified Paralegal.
