Alpha Academy - Session 4 - Positive Behaviors and Relationships

We were extremely excited to meet with our mentees following the Holidays. Our first session in 2023 was a success and we are currently still on schedule with our Pinewood Derby Car Project. The session's topic was "Positive Behavior and Relationships" and it was led by brothers Jamar Turner and Nivek Johnson. During the session, after a brief recap of our December session, we covered many topics heavily affecting our mentees today. We discussed stereotypes, what they are, and how they affect how we are perceived, manhood and what that means to our mentees, what it means to respect women, consent, and how to improve relationships with women. We were impressed at how much our mentees knew about these subjects. Following the session we split the young men into groups of about 5-6 and started the "Barbershop Talk" portion of our program. This is where we, in smaller groups, start to get to know our mentees outside of the topics we present each month. We want to emphasize belonging and safety for mentees, ensure all mentees are getting the same level of engagement, and determine what our mentees need individually and determine how to meet those needs, whether it be tutoring to help with grades, assistance with figuring out their next steps in life, family issues, and getting feedback from them on things they would like to see during our program. We plan to continue this breakout portion of the program every month moving forward. Following our breakout session we continued making progress on our Pinewood Derby car project. During the month of December the designs that our mentees designed and submitted, were cut and returned to the young men. Once they had their cars back, we let them balance their cars so they could determine the center of gravity for weight placement, gave them sandpaper, and taught them how to sand their vehicles. We had some additional cuts for those who missed December, and for the few mentees who joined the program this month so everyone is included. Their homework between this session and our next session on February 11th is to continue sanding their cars in preparation for the next steps!!!!!!!!