MANUP Leadership Institute

The name of my organization is MANUP which is a moniker for Mastering and Nurturing Unlimited Potential. The mission of MANUP is to promote leadership development for young men in urban communities by focusing on academics, extracurricular activities, and community service. The foundation of the program is a 10 step leadership training. During this training, young men will learn qualities that are required of an effective leader, why these qualities are important, and why the need for young, innovative leaders has to be filled. Young men are also taught about the importance of brotherhood and giving back to your community. Ichose to create this program because I identified the need for more young leaders in our communities. We always try to lead children, as adults, when in fact most children choose to follow the actions of their peers instead of the adults in their lives. I believe the reason children follow their peers is because they are seeking acceptance from their peers and at a young age it may be hard for a child to realize when they are making bad decisions. If young men are taught to police themselves and the importance of integrity I believe we can eliminate some of the problems that plague our community and lead to the demise of so many of our youth. If young men are taught about family and respecting women at a young age it will drastically reduce the number of broken families in urban communities. Broken families are a big problem in urban communities across the country. Sons are growing up without fathers and daughters without mothers. Without an example to follow, the only perception some children develop of family is from the media, which usually depicts urban families in a negative manner. At this point, we have no funding and very limited outside resources. As a result of our lack of resources, I could only focus on a small group of students who are strong academically and can handle the challenge of extracurricular activities. As the program grows and the need for MANUP’s services is increased hopefully we will gain more resources and be able to help more young men. Once students matriculate to high school, my vision is that they will take the things learned from being a member of MANUP and use them to lead other students in the right direction. If this cycle continues for years, then eventually we will have just as many positive leaders amongst our youth as we do gang members and inmates.
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