The SAGE INTERGENERATIONAL MENTORING PROGRAM is a means by which the Youth, in partnership with the Longevous (Senior) Mentors, are Inspired to maximize their potential. The program is expected to have the capacity to create an environment where self-confidence, self-identity and the ability to make wise and responsible choices are greatly stressed and evaluated.

Mission

This program is for youth ages 10-18 by bridging the gap, from one generation to the next, by sharing the knowledge, training and education acquired by positive and productive Longevous adults to our aspiring, progressive Youth, a learning experience for everyone.

 
 

Statement of Purpose

The purpose is to empower and inspire our Youth by providing the tools and resources, guidance and support, developing job skills to improve performances, self-respect and self-worth needed to be in competitive and survive in today’s highly technical, innovative and digital era. In addition, we will address issues plaguing our communities.

Aim

To be an Intergenerational social program that provides opportunities for different genders, that partner Longevous (Senior) Mentors and Youth to come together to share experiences, knowledge and skills that are mutually beneficial, and foster positive long-term relationships.

 

High Expectations!

Stick-to-itiveness!

Responsibility!

Commitment!

Reliability!

Discipline!

Loyalty!

Goals

  1. To effectively implement a successful Mentoring Program for the Youth of our community, ages 10-18 years old.
  2. To positively influence the lives of all Youth – who will make a commitment to actively apply the knowledge and principles taught in the program.
  3. To assist the Youth in our community in their maturity development through the thought-provoking examination of life issues.
  4. To assist the Youth of our community to understand their role in order to maximize their Humanhood; To help them realize the responsibility they have to their family, community and society. 
  5. To provide an environment where the Youth of our community can best utilize their skills, talents and abilities in leadership development.
  6. To develop a Neutral Gender (Mentoring Activist Leaders of Excellence) group sessions.
  7. To help the Youth in our community in effective decision-making and goal setting, enabling them to better deal with the issues that confront them.
  8. To inspire the Youth in our community to excel academically to the best of their avility and to be recognized as honor roll students each report card period.
  9. To provide a social and recreational outlet for the Youth of our community in an environment centered on building positive relationships with their parents, peers, elders, teachers, administrators and their Longevous Mentor.
  10. To enhance the Youth in our community knowledge of their immediate family. They must learn the history of their people from ancient times to the present times, with special emphasis on their own immediate families and lineage.
  11. To inspire and direct the Youth in our community toward positive, cultural values and help the Youth plan for future careers.
  12. To make the Youth in our community cognizant of their own sexuality and how it relates to responsibility, self-esteem and their future.
  13. To guide the Youth in our community through time management skills. They must be acquainted with the necessary steps of organization that they will need in order to successfully complete tasks put before them in life.
  14. To help the Youth of our community establish a spiritual foundations.
  15. To enhance the general perception of the Youth in our community throughout the City of Philadelphia, and then replicate our success throughout the United States.

Photo Credit: Generosity.org

24% of the city of Philadelphia residents have income below the poverty rate. The research reveals a high school diploma is necessary to escape poverty, and Philadelphia falls well short of the rest of the country in graduating its youth. Besides, there is a higher concentration of the disabled and other recipients that receive SSDI than in other cities. We have more single mothers who are heads of the household, 44 percent, which is twice the national rate. The housing costs are high because of mounting shortages of apartments, even though there are subsidized apartments in the city. As well as more longevous citizens who receive a lower fixed income that is below the federal 23.5% poverty level.  

And we spend more on county, state, and federal mass incarceration than we do to educate our children. Plus, we have an abundance of uneducated and under-educated ex-felons that occupy menial jobs, just- over- broke. ‘Our most vulnerable citizen has turned into political cannon fodder.’ Every sentence carries a lifetime for people that were separated from society under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of Prisons… and are without the training to compete in our digital and hi-tech society.


Plus, University and College students live on a stringent budget and leave the area after graduation.

An important part of this innovative solution is to scatter factual information to the people in the communities of Philadelphia, PA. The author talked with many people in different settings, Doctors, Lawyers, Advocates, civil rights organizations, entrepreneurs, blue-collar workers, civil service employees, military veterans, and parents and students, and they want to be involved; let us learn to groom and use those talents, abilities, and skills. Let the people rally around and tell them the truth.

Poverty is not an intractable problem, although it is complex. Therefore, the solutions have to be specific, and they have to be realistic in the preventive outcomes.

The goal, besides reducing the poverty rate, is to give people direction, and the tools and help cultivate and encourage self-motivation to make changes by disseminating factual information and promoting pages of workable laws to provide safety, humane treatment, and state opportunities for a just life which includes social justice by promoting and understanding discrimination, oppression, and prejudices in our society and working to overcome them. 
The goal, besides reducing the poverty rate, is to give people direction, and the tools and help cultivate and encourage self-motivation to make changes by disseminating factual information and promoting pages of workable laws to provide safety, humane treatment, and state opportunities for a just life which includes social justice by promoting and understanding discrimination, oppression, and prejudices in our society and working to overcome them.


‘Opposition’
When people face opposition; they accomplish the unthinkable; they stand as proof that we can make it too. We Can Make Philadelphia Smarter. Let us not be a mirror of society, however, a ‘maker’ of society.