YMEN

YMEN’s Auction is Coming!

mthorne — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:41:11 +0000

I just wanted to remind you that the YMEN 2011 Benefit Auction is only ONE WEEK AWAY! If you haven’t already purchased your ticket or table, or if you want to sponsor Lawndale parent or student to attend, please let me know as soon as possible! We only have a few tables left, and want to make sure that everyone who wants to come is able to do so. Tickets are $50, and this includes a wonderful night or entertainment, a delicious meal, a live and silent Auction , and a night with YMEN! You can also purchase or sponsor a table of 10 for $500. Every little bit helps, so even if you aren’t able to attend to sponsor a ticket or even just make a general donation means so much to YMEN and myself.

–Mike

PS> If you’d like a preview of our auction items, click here.

Twin stars from West Side show the way

mthorne — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:22:06 +0000

At last count, just four of 10 black women who enrolled in college after graduating from a Chicago public school finished in six years. About 70 percent of black girls in Chicago graduate from high school. Trout invited her former students — girls she and her husband have mentored, sheltered in their home for a time and embraced as family — to share their secrets. How did they survive high school and college when so many others stumble? Discipline, drive and, most importantly, a rich network of support — starting with each other.

Click here for the full article.

Amazing News: Past, Present, and Future

mtrout — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:30:09 +0000

Past: Just this past week I attended the college graduations of our YMEN twins: Valonda and Victoria Roberts from Southern Illinois University and Denison University in Ohio. It was a powerful example of what hard work, determination, and a loving community can bring about. I am a proud papa!

Present: Trucks are currently preparing and pouring the cement for our new sports court on YMEN’s southern campus on Avers Avenue. This project will be a toll used for mentoring and community partnerships for many decades to come. Something good is definitely coming to the “hood.

Future: On Saturday, May 28 at 6PM at 1240 S Pulaski we will be celebrating over 60 students and their achievements with YMEN and EVE. It is a night of great food, inspiration and encouragement, and strong community support. Don’t believe the negative stories you hear every night on the news — the real truth is that God is raising up a new generation of leadership that care about education, their faith, and serving the community. Hope you can join us. Tickets are $25 and the food alone will blow your socks off!

Academic Support in Lawndale

mthorne — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:54:37 +0000

Our Executive Director, Mike Trout, and our Development Director, Xavier Ramey, strike again. They have been featured among other significant academic support institutions in a video featured on the Steans Family Foundation website (here). As always it is wonderful to have our work recognized, especially alongside the likes of North Lawndale College Prep High School and UMOJA — great organizations helping our young people succeed.

Good City’s Recognition

mthorne — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:17:50 +0000

15 years ago, YMEN began with the help and support of Goodcity, a non-profit incubator that helps those with vision begin effective and sustainable organizations. In 2011, Goodcity and its President, Mike Ivers, receives one of Chicago’s top awards honoring their work in helping organizations like YMEN. We are grateful for their support and celebrate this honor with them.

We are covered

mthorne — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:03:57 +0000

Coverage can be a particularly prickly thing. Media coverage in particular. In a neighborhood like North Lawndale, we have all kinds of challenges, and to some extent, the negative coverage of our community is honest; the things reported about our community are factual. However, the media usually only covers one side of the story. WCIU, in the piece below, offers another perspective — a neighborhood of both challenges and transformation. (The entire piece is 26 minutes. If you want to jump to the portion that features YMEN, slide over to around the 8:40 mark.)

And it’s particularly exciting that we had our Director of Development, Xavier Ramey, representing us in the studio. Intelligent? Check. Handsome? Check. Passionate? Check. Young man who has grown up through YMEN and has come back to invest in the lives of young men like himself? Check! Xavier, you make us proud. Thanks for having us covered.

Lead by numbers…

mthorne — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:23:27 +0000

Antoine likes points. He is a pretty good basketball player, quick with and without the ball. And in spite of what his small frame might lead you to believe, he has hops. One of the exciting things we have noticed this year with him is that he keeps showing up. And not just for basketball.

We have begun to keep track of points for the guys each program night. If they come to JAM they get points. Learn to Earn, points. Arts Alive, points. God’s Property, points. And these points add up, and if you are Antoine, they add up quickly. At this point (no pun intended) in the year, Antoine is our points leader!

It’s particularly surprising because Antoine was not a faithful Y-Man last year. He came sporadically, occasionally. But now with measurable personal results and a strong start with our programs, he has participated more than any of the young men we have.

The accumulation of points may not mean much to you, but it means that we as a staff have a tangible way to demonstrate to our young men how much they have participated, and (we hope) gives us a stronger sense of who is making an investment in their own leadership.

Antoine, keep leading!

Back to Dickson Valley

mthorne — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:56:01 +0000

We love this place! Dickson Valley Camp has been a wonderful place to see our young men be young men. In the ‘hood, the environment and influences often encourage them toward negativity. And it’s amazing to me that the same young men — in the great outdoors — can do what boys do and not have to worry with the negative! We ran. We played. We climbed. We wrestled. We teased. We got frustrated (without fighting!) and we reconciled. All of these things set the context of our training on leadership.

Leadership involves values — deeply held beliefs which guide our decisions and behavior. We talked about values and the need to both identify and maintain our values. I made the case with them that the best leaders don’t compromise their values; that perhaps the very thing that makes a leader great is that s/he doesn’t compromise her/his values for anything or anyone.

But leadership also involves vision — both seeing what is and what could be! We discussed our vision for our neighborhood, a neighborhood without trash, without violence and with abiding peace. They have a vision, but it must be encouraged.

And Dickson Valley provided a place for us to reflect upon that vision. In the bucholic fields southeast of Chicago, our young men thought about their personal vision, their values and the one who exemplifies the very best of both: Jesus Christ.

Thank you to those who continue in prayer and financial support for us. Pray that the God’s vision and values will not only infect and inspire us, but that they will spur us to live challenging and “crown-worthy” lives before Him.

Thank You WGN!

mthorne — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:21:17 +0000

We often labor in anonymity. And while we don’t do the work that we do for public recognition, it still feels good to get some. So we are grateful to WGN, and especially Gaynor Hall, for sending us some shine. And of course, we are grateful for the privilege of doing this work. If you didn’t see the feature channel 9 did on YMEN, you can watch the video above.

This video highlights the work we have been doing over the last few years in our capital campaign to build a campus to bring YMEN college graduates back to North Lawndale (Indigenous Leaders!), as well as our youth programs that help students like Jameson Parker.

Hard work on the mural

kmanuel — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:14:00 +0000

We have continued to work on the mural projects this summer, led by our trusty-dusty DJ! He’s done a great job corraling our kids and helping them design, create and implement works of art — and of leading them around the city of Chicago by bicycle. The video above is an example of the in-house, quick-edits of our very on Kareem M. Thanks to DJ and Kareem for making us look good!