Capstone Institute Partners with Maya Angelou Young Adult Learning Center
The Promise Program
https://vimeo.com/128608373
The Capstone Institute at Howard University has partnered with Maya Angelou Young Adult Learning Center (MAYALC) and the See Forever Foundation to implement a violence prevention program targeting young men 12-25 years old. This important research initiative is supported by a five year, multimillion-dollar award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and disseminated by Hampton University’s Minority Men’s Health Initiative (MMHI).
The Hampton University – Howard University Men’s Violence Prevention (HU2-MVP) project titled The Promise Program is a strength based, culturally relevant, and family-centered violence prevention program for African American males. The program accommodates sixty participants who reside in Hampton or Newport News, Virginia and sixty who reside in Washington, D.C. The overall goal of this program is to help these males to achieve their greatest potential as healthy, self-sufficient and productive members of their communities and to avoid violence.
This 6-month long intensive personal development and violence prevention program focuses on providing these young men with knowledge, skills and resources that will: 1) build upon and increase their individual and cultural strengths, 2) improve their family relationships and 3) increase their exposure to strategies proven effective in other evidence-based programs.
In workshop sessions participants learned, discussed and participated in activities that focused on topics such as: what it means to be a Black man in America; community responsibility and support; anger management; effective communication and conflict resolution to name a few.
The cooperative project involved creating a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that was conceived, developed and produced by the participants. The PSA will help to create awareness, show the importance of understanding the impact of violence in our communities and promote nonviolent behaviors.
Participants were mentored in small groups with elder and younger mentors. The mentors served as real life role models of behaviors encouraged in the workshops and helped to reinforce what participants have learned in the workshop sessions.
In an effort to give back to their community Promise Program members served as volunteers for the Food & Friends program, preparing, packaging and delivering food to District of Columbia residents with life challenging illnesses.
Other program activities included outings to a career and vocational preparatory academy and social trips that were designed to build confidence, and foster relationships and trust. Together the components of this evidence-based program are designed “to reduce the disproportionate number of African American males who are involved in violence”.