WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AND APATHY AMONG YOUNG BLACK MALES 3828565979?profile=original “Until we engage children, youth and families are around serious survival and developmental needs we will continue to see senseless acts of violence in communities. Changing the mindset of people in communities is our only alternative to address violence.” ~ David Miller, M.Ed. - Founder of the Dare To Be King Project

Dare To Be King: What if The Prince Lives? A Survival Workbook for African American Males is an innovative approach to address urban street culture, violence and a self-defeating mindset among African American males. The workbook is the brain child of David Miller, a former teacher turned social entrepreneur. The model is a 52 week life/survival skills curriculum designed to teach alternatives to street life and coach the participants to explore opportunities for growth.

A victim of violence growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Miller created the model to engage young Black males around three critical areas: anger, decision-making and impulse control. Miller believes that our cities are occupied by thousands of angry males due to failed public policies, absent fathers, eroding communities and dysfunctional schooling.

Dare To Be King is an essential community-based tool designed to create a much needed dialogue to challenge narrow definitions of manhood and masculinity. These definitions have created apathy and a fascination with gangs, drugs and a “gangster lifestyle.” Often popularized by shows like The Wire, The Sopranos and Hollywood movies that depict young African American males as drug dealers and criminals.

The curriculum uses role playing, case studies, discussion groups and critical thinking activities to attack a mindset of mediocrity and hopelessness. In September 2013, a local New Jersey newspaper ran the headline, “14-year-old Newark Boy Killed; Had 30 Bricks of Heroin and Loaded Gun in His Bedroom.” These incidents speak to the urgent need to engage with young males who are locked into a lifestyle of death and destruction.

From the likelihood of being victimized by the police to robbed at gun point, the curriculum has developed innovative practices to teach life and survival skills. The curriculum uses the tragic examples of the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant to have dialogue with young males on topics like community safety, addressing encounters with strangers and the police and how to handle dangerous situations. For example, young males are encouraged to watch the film Fruitvale Station and participate in a series of critical thinking activities outlined in the curriculum.

According to Cephus Johnson, the Director of the Oscar Grant Foundation, “Without efforts like Dare To Be King, we will continue to see escalating violence, incarceration and younger and younger killers in our community!”

Recently, Forbes Magazine published the 10 most dangerous cities in America based on FBI crime data. These cities along with countless others are plagued with serious educational, family and community dynamics that often promote violence as a realistic alternative. Models like Dare To Be Kingspecifically address many of the challenges that young males struggle with daily. Many times we hear in the news about large cities like Chicago and Detroit but the violence is devastating all communities.

Jackie Campbell, Assistant Commissioner for Youth Services City of Rochester Recreation & Youth Services states: “Rochester is a small city with big city challenges, which are doubly felt by our Black men, and our young boys in particular. Our boys so often need time and space to dialogue on real life issues, from a cultural frame of reference. The Dare to Be King curriculum allows that and more, and provides them with the necessary skills to be resilient in the face of those real life challenges, and to help them see that success is within their reach.”

Other sections of the curriculum boldly challenge fatherlessness, self-image and peer pressure in the lives of adolescent males. Each of these areas are important in shaping the lives of young Black males in our community. Serious efforts are also dedicated to working with the parents of the young males involved. From engaging single mothers to reconnecting fathers, the Dare To Be King model uses holistic approaches to engage young Black males and the adults who shape his world view.

Dare To Be King is currently being implemented in summer programs, after school programs, mentoring projects, and faith-based initiatives to support young males.

For more information or to order copies, please visit www.daretobeking.net.


About Founder David Miller, M.Ed.

A former Baltimore educator, Miller blends his longtime dedication to academic excellence with his gritty teaching approach. A product of Baltimore’s mean and unforgiving streets, Miller relates to urban street culture in ways many others cannot do when working with at-risk youth.

Over the past 20 years David Miller has developed an international reputation for designing programs across the globe. He has focused on gang interventions, literacy, youth development and family strengthening in Africa, Canada & West Indies.

This information has been distributed through BlackPR.com and BlackNews.com

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  • revolutionary greetings,

    " Miller created the model to engage young Black males around three critical areas: anger, decision-making and impulse control. Miller believes that our cities are occupied by thousands of angry males due to failed public policies, absent fathers, eroding communities and dysfunctional schooling."

    the first question i would ask is: what is the model predicated on? is the model based on a european one or an afrikan one? all too many times, WE base our view of OUR situation on seeing the world through non-afrikan eyes, trying to fix OUR problems with a model that derives from the same group of people have made US dysfunctional. it's like asking sheep to turn to the wolf to get the wolves off their backs.

    there is no way (in hell), WE can fix any of OUR problems with so-called angry lethargic young black males without politically educating them first. and what is political education? one that gives them a clear and concise historical analysis of the afrikan experience and the concrete material conditions that have risen up out of it. it is natural that a system designed for white people, whose ancestors claimed to have been trying to free themselves from the so-called religious tyranny of europe, would erect a school apparatus that keeps OUR children in a dilapidated state. so, there's no surprise or shock there.

    and OUR young black brothas are angry for a reason. they have a right to be angry, and need make no apologies for their anger. it's just that their anger has been channeled in the wrong direction or attempts are being made to suppress it, by various contrivances such as anger management class or medication.

    the highest type of model is a revolutionary one, in the spirit of all OUR ancestors whose blood has been shed for the past five hundred years. and OUR young black brothas, who have been pawns in so-called black on black violence, must not be betrayed from that fact.

    all too often, WE want to speak of senseless violence, yet the historical foundation of amerikkka was one of violence. everyday, OUR young black brothas are bombarded with images of violence, as protocol by the powers-that-be. they can be herded off to the military, become numb to feeling, turned into killing machines, go off to foreign soil, be lauded as heros, and no one seems to have a problem with that type of wanton violence. but, when its US, all of a sudden that violence meets with anything but a child of god labeling.

    amerikkka was founded on violence. afrikan people were taken by violence, kept in check by violence, corded off by violence, and put on welfare which is a form of violence, and WE expect OUR young black males to not be violent.

    the constant flow of absent fathers is logical, were it not for the conditions set to make that reality ripe. therefore, WE have to exploit the conditions which will reverse the trend: amerikkka's chief vulnerability: its lies!

    but the core of OUR problems ain't with young black males and their wallowing in whatever. they have been made scapegoats for everything that has gone wrong with europeanism. they are the cosmetics of the ugly face of white amerikkka's dysfunctionalism. and hardly any of the so-called black intellectuals are willing to shout it out to the world. why not? because they have been the ones responsible for the failure of OUR youth receiving the right medicine: revolutionary principles. they have been the middle buffer for which on the other side lies the puppet masters, whose sole purpose is white preservation.

    all the models, one after the other, and yet the picture of the canvas remains unchanged in scenery: so-called angry young black males, who senselessly slaughter each other. it's one thing to stand on top of the mountaintop, look down and talk about what's going on down in the valley. but it's another thing to be down in the valley and teach OUR young brothas what's up on top of the hill. i leave that to the educated!

    UHURU!

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