Becoming a Mentor to drug abuse families

Grandparents raising grandchildren are on the rise, and some of the reasoning is because of a drug addict family member. There are many different ways through organizations that we all as colleagues can get involved with. There is the Big Brother big sisters organization which is the largest and oldest youth mentoring organization in the United States. According to the National Research, Little Brother and sisters are:

More confident in their schoolwork performance

Able to get along better with their families

46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs

27% less likely to begin using alcohol

52% less likely to skip school

One interesting fact is that “Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteers had the greatest impact in the area of alcohol and substance abuse prevention. For every 100 youth between ages 10 and 16 who start using drugs, the study found, only 54 similar youth who are matched with a Big will start using drugs. Minority boys and girls were the most strongly influenced; they were 70 percent less likely than their peers to initiate drug use.”

Organizations here at Morgan through community service are: KUUMBA, which is a tutoring and mentoring program for adolescents ages 11 to 15. Brother to brother is a volunteer program dedicated to working with male high school students in Baltimore City.

These organizations are just to name a few. You can find out more about these organizations by visiting the Morgan website. Please GET INVOLVED.

sister soulja

Best selling author of the book the Coldest Winter Ever, Sister Soulja, was at Morgan State University bookstore on March 5. Arriving late to the book signing a cheerful Sister Soulja was invited to speak to Morgan students about her recent book, Midnight. This is the sequel to the book Coldest Winter Ever, which she mentioned durinig her speech. As she read Chapter one of Midnight, Sister Soulja left me and probably others with questions about the book and the connectivity it has to real life situations, though the book is fiction. She opened the floor to questions and gave us very detailed and insightful answers. One young lady asked why did Sister Soulja chose the picture of the character Midnight on the front cover. Her response was, "It is important to show African American images when it's not a disease....so poor don't even have no grass...images being bombarded on us." She also expressed that she designed everything in the book, such as the pictures, because that is what she wanted to see, previously telling the audience that she rejected many publishers. She mentioned that the greatest writer is one who has the greatest experiences and the greatest travelling experience, and that both of those things puts you in a better position to draw resources from. She spoke words of wisdom to the audience, especially to the women, saying that we are prime suspects for being exploited and manipulated. She left that saying, "We need to know who we are and what we believe in."