Campaign of Anti-Violence

Woman heads campaign focused on "uplifting and partnering to help young men."

by Makia Harper

	print	email	reply

Published: Jan 23, 2008

activism

Last March, Jumoke Dada caught an evening-news segment in which the mayoral candidates were talking about strategies to address Philadelphia's spike in violence. The story was followed by a short scene of young men walking aimlessly around their neighborhoods. Rather than turning the channel, the images of those young men pressed firmly on Dada's mind as she began devising a way to help end violence and motivate, guide and support young men.

"Men are dying and going to jail," thought the North Philly real-estate woman. "If something is not done, it will be catastrophic."

By evening's end, Dada had created a proposal that would detail the mission and goals of a campaign to encourage professional men to mentor the city's African-American male youth. She calls it the M.A.N. Campaign, short for Mentor Advocate Networker, an individual or business that is dedicated to impacting the life of an at-risk African-American male ages 13 to 24.

"It is about uplifting and partnering to help young men," she says of the campaign's mission (themancampaign.org), which aims to get at least 200 mentors, involve Philadelphia schools and truancy organizations to identify at-risk youth, and persuade 50 businesses to implement apprenticeship programs. "My role in this is a motivator and supporter, but it takes a man to keep this going and to make an impact."

It was supposed to be a six-month effort, beginning in July 2007; however, Dada is extending her efforts to March in hopes of finding financing and additional volunteers.

In all, she's been able to recruit roughly a dozen mentors, but has found it difficult to get support from other groups. (In November, according to her Web site, Dada sent several volunteers to the United Way's Campaign for Mentors for orientation and, on Monday, they participated in the Martin Luther King Jr. day of service.) She has, however, gotten assistance from the likes of former Philadelphia Eagle Troy Vincent, educator Salome Thomas-El and author Omar Tyree in talking up her idea.

Says Thomas-El: "Every child deserves to have someone be crazy about them. Our young boys need to see that the fathers and role models in the community love them without exception. Many of the images presented to young men are not positive. We need to change those images because children want to emulate what they see. It is time for all men to stand up for our young people."

Though weary, Dada remains optimistic that the upcoming two months will see her idea take hold. When it does, she says, "The girls will be next."

 

The Bell Curve
Zoned Out
Clueless in Philadelphia
The Waiting Blame
Rock Bottom