Breaking the Cycle and Gaining Ground
Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 26, 2017
“One match struck. Two lives
lit.” That’s the motto of Mentoring for
Leadership, the splendid program founded by Marietta native Beverly McAfee in
2010.
Today, 7 years and approximately 200
students later, this stellar 501(c) 3 organization continues to place youths on
the path to achievement and success in life. For MFL, achievement and success
in life means building character, learning basic life skills, overcoming difficult
circumstances, and creating a better future for oneself and the community one
lives in.
Talking with McAfee and her able
co-workers Joyce Caldwell and Marge Kellogg about their mentoring program is
nothing less than inspiring, mainly because of the commitment these three
ladies have, not just to a program but to the young people it serves.
Based at Marietta High School and
supported by the school board, community leaders, and many businesses and
individuals, MFL matches students with adult mentors who, by virtue of their
one-year commitment, meet with their students at least twice a month and from
time to time attend group activities with them as well. It also enjoys the support and assistance of
Leigh Coburn, director of Graduate Marietta Student Success Center at Marietta
High School.
MFL’s major goal is to help students move
toward graduation as they form habits and adopt values that will lead to
productive citizenship. No wild-eyed
dreamers, but dreamers still, McAfee and company know their program is not for
everybody. Its design is for students
with high potential who could benefit from one-on-one support and friendship of
an adult mentor but who would also be positive change agents among their fellow
students. To enter the program, students
must be recommended by a teacher or administrator.
Many students who have successfully
completed the program experienced transiency, poverty, family dysfunction, or
homelessness. For students grade 6
through 12 there are after school programs, field trips, and extensive
leadership training, but the heart of the program is the one-on-one mentoring
provided by volunteer mentors from all walks of life.
This week during an enjoyable hour
with McAfee, Caldwell, Kellogg, and Coburn, my thoughts ran to the work of
sociologist Charles Murray. In a book
titled Losing Ground and a follow-up
volume titled Coming Apart, Murray
argued that federal government programs have only served to increase the number
of America’s poor. Asserting that government largesse destroys self-reliance,
Murray insists that to gain ground and to stop our coming apart, each community
must take care of its own.
Murray’s conclusion about help coming
from close by is the centerpiece of MFL’s philosophy and practice. “My town, your town, our town” pretty much
reflects the heart and the strategy of MFL’s leaders, mentors, and
participants.
Another program tenet is that to address
social problems, it’s wise to aim efforts toward the next generation. Organizations that attend to the needs of parents
and needy adults in general should be applauded, but to break the cycle of
poverty or hopelessness, efforts should be aimed toward youth. In other words, MFL’s goal is long range:
attend to present needs but gain ground by showing the next generation the way
to success and good citizenship.
69% of the students in the program are from extremely
low income families. 63% are from single
parent families, and 16% have been homeless at some time in the last two years. Currently the program has 100 students and a
goal of 200 by 2020.
The
on-time graduation rate for program participants is 85% compared to the state
of Georgia’s rate of 69%. 90% are
promoted to the next grade level on time.
MFL’s Class of 2016 was awarded over $200,000 in college scholarships.
In
the words of Beverly McAfee, “How can I not be passionate when I learn that one
of our students is achieving her dream of being the first one in her family to
graduate from high school?” From the
lips of an MPL participant, “I got into lots of trouble while in New Orleans
but by the grace of God I got to attend MHS and play football.” This young man is making straight A’s and
working 2 jobs.
There’s
no cursing the darkness in the MFL office; lighting fires in the hearts of the
young is its sole plan and purpose.
It’s
after 4 PM but in the Graduate Marietta/MPL wing of storied Marietta High
School, students are still around. I
think they don’t want to leave. They’re tutoring and being tutored or working
in the clothes closet. They themselves
are lighting up the lives of others.
They themselves are breaking the cycle.
Check
out this splendid operation at MentoringForLeadership.org.
Roger
Hines
3/22/17
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