1)  As the Program Manager of this program what do you hope to accomplish? 

We hope to engage the young men with the tools necessary to become successful. We want to show them, by example, that there are successful black men in the Pittsburgh community. We also want them to have a high level of self confidence, self-esteem, and have pride in who they are. We don’t want them to feel like they have to conform to the negative things that may surround them. We want them to never accept “No” as an answer.  

 2) After the youth complete the first phase of the program, what skills do you hope they develope?

 After the Week-long Residential Summit, we want the young men to have an understanding of the importance of African-American leadership in this community; to understand the impact of the images that are conveyed through media outlets; to recognize the difference between the positive and negative expressions within the African American Culture. We want them to have an enhanced vision of their lives, and what the appropriate steps are in pursuing there life goals. We want them to understand the importance of an education, not just graduating from high school, but pursuing a Bachelors Degree, Master’s Degree, Doctorial Degree.  We want them to know how to manage money; teach them how to save, how to obtain financial goals. We want them to understand the importance of giving back to THIS community, and to develop a commitment to THIS community. All of these things will be discussed during the 7-Day Summit, and they young men will have opportunities to exercise a lot of these things during the year-long Saturday Institute, which is new for this year.

 3.)  It is very significant to have a program like this for young African American Teens, why do you feel they should participate? How do you convey to them the importance of having a program like this?

 This program is extremely important, because it helps the development of the youth of Pittsburgh, and surrounding areas. It shows them that they can be successful here in this city, and don’t have to migrate to the areas defined as “Black Mecca’s” of the country, such as Atlanta, or Charlotte, to increase their chances of success. It teaches them that they ARE an important part of this community, and CAN CONTINUE to be an asset to it. They also will be introduced to successful black men in this community, and hear their stories about their road to success, both the challenges they faced, and how they persevered through those challenges to reach their goals.  An additional piece is to teach the importance of Mentoring. I believe in the idea of “Each One Teach One”, Once these young men gain the various tools from the BMLDI Program, we want them to help others be successful as well. Becoming a Peer Mentor is something that they can do fairly easily, and we want to show them the many ways to do it, and start doing it with younger youth.

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