Inner-city students are being socially battered, academically marginalized, intellectually under-appreciated, and most importantly cast in a role with an uncertain future. We are embarking on a journey to save, protect and encourage inner-city youth by using one of our time tested institutions to do so – education. We can no longer can sit on the sidelines and sociologically critique casualty afte
r casualty and do nothing. It is easy to voice a concern from the ease of downtown Chicago living, but it is another to get in the arena of urban chaotic confusion and do something. We are committed to that end to make a difference. That something will entail us making some real and personal sacrifices - financial, emotional and intellectual. However, the concept we have developed can really impact the future of the teenagers we NEED to save, if others believe as we do, that our inner-city students deserve a chance to make a better life for themselves. But this is only going to happen if their road to any potential success is paved a little smoother by those who genuinely care. After a long discussion with many who have been affected by the challenges of their earlier academic pursuits, it was a consensus that the obstacles that derailed their short-lived academic life, and that of a promising career was the lack of financial, emotional, and intellectual support. We believe addressing the three can save countless teenagers from making the unhealthy choice of discontinuing their education after the freshman year of high school, thereafter attempting to create a life for themselves absent the academic tools to do so. We are ready and willing to remedy those challenges. We want to enlist five students per semester to join our program titled FUND-THE-MENTAL Now. The program’s objective is to incentivize students to stay in school. We have created what we believe to be a value base criteria that encourages performance, focus and discipline. We will pay each student $250.00 monthly to maintain a 3.2 GPA. Our financial investment in each will total $1250.00 monthly. That is doable for the foreseeable future without any outside help. However, there is another component which does require assistance. The students will be required to attend a weekly workshop for an hour and a half that will cover lifestyle issues that can prove to be challenging, but necessary for healthy living. Relationship choices, cultural influences, conflict resolution, effective communication, parent-child relationships, goals, and your legacy will be topics covered. This program can become enormously successful if we are able to create global partnerships. You understand the importance of helping those who need it most. We all have been in a predicament of need at some point in our lives. We need your help to save students that are on the cusp of making the unhealthy choice of leaving school and getting snared by street life. Most of the people we believe can be saved, hunger for the care and concern of outside interest. Our target- teens are some of the brightest, ambitious, and gifted teenagers in the inner-city, but too often their dreams of a better life is zapped by circumstances beyond their control. Can we really turn our heads and hearts away from the young and impressionable, who are desirous of becoming meaningful, positive and productive members of their respective communities and beyond? How will it affect you hearing about future casualties, wondering if that was someone you could have saved? FUND-THE-MENTAL needs your help. We need to raise money to hire instructors for the weekly workshops, and respond to other operational expenses that will help make us viable. It is increasing difficult to ask others to invest their time without compensation. PLEASE consider being a part of a concept we truly believe will make a difference in the lives of those that live on the fringes of our inner-city life. Thank you for your time and consideration.
