Visible Men, Our First Year Reflections…
It’s hard to believe that May marks the completion of our first year as an independent 501c3 non-profit organization. What a year it’s been!
We first want to thank all of you who have supported us in a variety of ways. Your thoughts, emails, encouragement, collaboration, advice, investment and belief in us provides great inspiration. We feel most honored to have the support and participation from the students we are serving. Overwhelmingly the students have been engaged, open and honest and have requested more content and interaction with Visible Men. This is music to our ears.
Like most start ups and non-profit organizations, this first year has not been without growing pains. Our most regrettable one being the recent cancellation of our Visible Men Across America RV Tour that was scheduled for Summer 2011. We came to this difficult decision after much internal reflection and felt that it was not the right time to allocate our precious resources to such a large endeavor. We remain very hopeful that we will “hit the road” in search of the untold stories of Visible Men Across America at a later date.
For now, we are very enthused by our ability to meet exceptional Visible Men “in the cloud”. Please continue to keep your referrals, emails, comments and online connections coming. They serve as powerful testimonials to the youth we serve that there are thousands of accomplished black men living fulfilling healthy lives.
Please see our Annual Summary of Programs and Operations for 2010-2011.
We are doing lots of “behind the scenes” capacity building, fundraising, and strategy work to ensure that we are in a position to serve more African American male students next year. Skype, Starbucks, late night texts from friends in California, we are so grateful to have great innovators, entrepreneurs and advisors in our inner circle.
Look for the exciting debut of our first Visible Men Promotional video next month! We’ve had the pleasure of working with Run Riot Films in Washington, DC and feel blessed that our first media production project has been with award winning Documentary Film maker, Josie Swantek and her amazing team.
Our amazing interns from Georgetown University have worked hard all year to assist us in researching and designing our first online Visible Men Student Campaign. In the 2011-2012 school year, we will invite students to participate in our VM student campaign by interviewing Visible Men in their communities and submitting a video, essay or electronic form of artwork that captures their encounter.
Also stay tuned for announcements of our selected areas for the expansion of our VM after school pilot programs for 2011-2012 and some powerful additions to our Executive and Advisory Board.
We’re grateful, determined and even more focused on ensuring Visible Men is a positive change agent in the lives of young black boys and men. Among the many positive responses we received from our student surveys, the following were our favorites:
“Visible Men makes me proud to be black.”
“I really wish we could do more of this, like have the group meetings more often and throughout the whole year.”
At a time when far too many young black boys are fatherless, dropping out of high school, and making unhealthy choices, Visible Men will continue to work with other dedicated individuals and agencies who are called to action.
“Never, never be afraid to do what’s right , especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thank each and every one of you in our Visible Men Family!
