Aware!; Tomorrow's 100 Black Men

This original WSRE presentation is made possible by viewers like you. Thank you. Hi, I'm D.D. Sharpen. Welcome to this edition of The Aware Show. We're glad to have you right there with us. Well, what they see, they will be. And today, our guests are hoping that will be 100 Black men. The organization initially started in New York in 1963 when a group of African American men got together and wanted to improve the conditions in their community.

Well, by 1983, just 20 years later, they met with similar organizations in other parts of the country and decided to create a nationwide organization which has now over 116 chapters including internationally and one right here in the Pensacola area. Today, the coalition of 100 Black men across the nation and here at home worked together to empower men through economic development, health and wellness, educational support programs, scholarships and even mentoring just to name a few of the programs. And joining us here today to tell us all about the 100 Black men of Pensacola Incorporated is its chapter president, you're looking at him, Attorney Frederick Gantt. We also have the vice president of the local organization, Mr. Neil Randall. And we also have two students who are participating in the program. You will be finding out more about Mr. Brandon Noyer and Ivory Leonard IV. We want to take some time out to thank each and every last one of you for being here on

our program. Interesting conversation coming up here on the Aware Show. So you'll want to stay close about how you can get involved with this organization to empower our young men who are growing up to be the men who you'll be meeting more about here on the set. Talking about the 100 Black men of Pensacola Incorporated, you were the first in the state of Florida, the first chapter. Okay, thank you, D.D. for inviting us to the program this this evening. We're glad to be here, representing our organization. Yes, we're the first chapter instead of Florida to join the national organization. We're part of the title of the first chapter in Florida back in 1980s. And we don't exist in ever since. And we do a good job of mentoring, focus on mentoring young men trying to share and power them to be better citizens and better men as they move forward in life. We want to help develop leaders and help develop leaders and sort of build a foundation for those men as they go through life and give them a roadmap to follow to succeed better in life.

Okay, so it's not to isolate audience because we deal and live in a diverse community here in Pensacola. We say 100 Black men of Pensacola, but that's bigger than that. Can you address that a little bit for us off the top and why is there a need for something like this? Well, I focus on helping those in the young community, helping one and helping another one. The problem that we face as a community is obvious and that we do. Our film turned problem is that it's a kind of community primarily, in terms of how school drop out of black males, unfortunately when they're rampant, less than half don't graduate at the days to tell us, in terms of our college education, black men in prison. Those things are not fun to talk about but they are true. We try to make a difference trying to stem that tie, change those stats to more positive ones and do our part and helping guide and share knowledge with them, help mentor so they have a better chance at succeeding because it's all about one helping one and

that's our purpose. So from that information you're just giving us, you can see why there's a need to just kind of zoom in and focus on trying to help African American young men become men and that sort of thing. Mr. Randall, you are very active in the schools. You volunteer hours and hours of your time. We thank you for what you're doing as well as you two, Mr. Gantt. But I want to talk to you because you're right there on the front lines with these kids in school. What are you seeing maybe some of the problematic things and why organizations like this are so necessary today? Well, did you, what I see, I've had the opportunity to actually go into the school system and work with these kids and see different sets of problems and situations that they incur. One of the things that really I developed a passion for this many, many years ago. And you know, I said to myself, you know, I want to do something different. I want to be able to reach out to the community to be able to help some of these kids. Once I identified what situations that were going on in the classrooms were behavioral

problems because these problems start out at a very, very young age. You know, it may be because of these young people, they don't have the encouragement, the positive reinforcement that they need to develop those skills and they get left behind. So those are the things that certain types of behavior at young ages in the classroom that I have saw, that I have experienced myself with the young kids. That is the thing that I try to tell a lot of young African American men and older men, please develop and donate a lot of your time to change your child's life. All it takes is a little bit of time to be able to do this. And the only way you're going to be able to find out about this stuff is, you know, it's word of mouth. You hear it. There's a mentoring program, local in our local community, that asses, you know, young men and asses, older adults to come out and mentor. And you know, I try to encourage people to go out and do that too because you really have to have a passion for this program.

But I tell a lot of guys, I say, you know, when you start mentoring, when you start, you know, talking to these young people and trying to help change their life, you know, are you going to be able to save all of them? You're not going to be able to save all of them, Dee Dee, but you can make a difference. And that's what I'm talking about with this program, 100 Black men. These gentlemen that send this program, the things that we do to encourage them each and every day through the training sessions, it is going to make a difference in them life and their lives. And you've already seen that difference. You have men to come up through this program. We're going to go in depth and zoom in and focus on this program that we're talking about today, tomorrow's 100, you're the 14th class of that, and we're going to tell you more about that. These young men here on the set today are part of that program, but you have some success stories that we're going to get to, I guess, as well, without keeping them quiet, because these gentlemen, I mean, they're very quiet on the set, but they are, how can I say, not just vocal, but when they speak, they have something to say, and they make you very proud of what they do every day in their schools, and want to talk to you a little bit

about that. Well, I guess we can start with you and Mr. Noy and talk about some of the things that you're dealing with in your school brand and tell us. The things I'm dealing with in my school is being, I'm not much of an outcast, but I'm very quiet, but it's just, in our schools, it's just separations of people. It's like you have popular kids, you have people that like to express themselves down here, and people that just be in the same flow of things in school, which is kind of just messed up at things. But we're all different, but in some, we all want to succeed, so basically, so I'm saying is we're all, we're not really connected in our schools, like, for example, is Black Man. Black Man, we're not connected to each other. We have difference of, like, you know, I weren't like shoes you wear or clothes you got

on. It's like getting very repetitive, and just not happening. Maybe they're trying to identify with the name brands, is that what you mean, and the clothing and that sort of thing? Yes, ma'am. What, how do you feel about that? Let's talk about that a second, the young boys wearing their pants below, showing their underwear and all that style and all that kind of thing. What do you think about that? I'm putting them on the spot now, because all of his friends are going to be watching and going, man, why'd you talk about that? Well, what kind of message do you think that's sending? I'm showing that to you. Because you certainly don't dress like that. Okay. I'm showing that you don't have self-respect of yourself. Okay. That's why I'm basically seeing it. Okay. Your pants are low. I mean, it's not, it's really not showing, it's not having no personality to it. It's just showing that you're just kind of ignorant and kind of not listening to people. That's what I'm thinking. That's my indication of where I get out of it. Okay. Well, I'm glad you went there and you kind of put that out, because I was going to get to that.

I want to talk to you, Mr. Ivory as well, because just moments go, we ask, how was your day in school? You said, we're remarkable. That's not really a word. You didn't say it quite like that. But that's really a word. I mean, you don't hear a lot of, you know, and that sort of thing. So then Mr. Gantt had to inquire as to what made your day remarkable, to find that in the scheme of things. I want you to share that with us, their story, because it was on point. Okay. So you want me to expound. Okay. I guess. Well, first of all, it's a blessing to wake up and see another day. That's remarkable right there. But that's not there. And we have a new opportunity to try something that we have never done before, to fix our mistakes that we did the previous day. But remarkable, my connotation, my feeling of remarkable, is exceeding to go beyond expectations. Because no man can determine no man's future.

Like, they can assume that assumption can be overcome. I say you're remarkable because it's a blessing, not only that, but I exceed, and I don't try to settle for less, because that way. And you haste all your exams too. Yes, man. Yeah, that was like the crem, crem de la crem, that was the everything, like the cherry on top and everything. I know your parents are over there smiling right now, so I'm not good answer. Well, that's really wonderful. And what do you think about the young men, the styles, and things like that? What do you think the message is? I see a question because I can't answer for everyone. What do you see in your school, what types of challenges do you think? Peer pressure. Okay. When they see their peers doing something, they tend to do the same. There aren't too many positive role models in school.

There are some, but usually quiet, and tend to they self. It's okay to do that, but maybe when we are trying to make a difference, we have to speak up. Okay. Makes a lot of sense. All right. And that's something that you all are talking about, and when you meet with these young men, every other Saturday through this program, you deal with, let's zoom in and focus now on this 14th class of tomorrow's 100, for example. We're starting our program each year, dealing with college, college reach out type activities, college curriculum. We share with the students how to apply for college, financial aid, little tip is on ACT, the SAT, when to apply for college, I'm going to apply for, when to apply. We get a full gamut, we get Mr. Kisaruto from UWF, come in and share with us students. He's in the crop program at UWF, he's in the crop program, and he does a great job of sharing with them.

All the nuances ends in the house of how to apply for college from a college perspective. Which is great for now, we just have changes in college, which of course are important. How many schools to apply for? Before we're going to cost to apply for the college, how to SAT and ACT are graded and awaited. When you take it more, take it more than once or twice, what does that mean for your interest in college? So it was a real extensive program that he puts on for our bows, we call them bows by the way bows. And it's a great job. So if I was a first session every year, it's college reach out. I just want you to know, I used that word the other day, and I think everybody knew about how old I was. Y'all like that. Yeah. Yeah. A bow. A bow. A bow. Yeah, a bow. There's a great job. And we start with that each year. And then we go to. We talk about young men. For the people who don't know what a bow is. Okay. And if it's, you know, we take class angle management and stress control for the dealing with problems in school, with peer pressure, with confronting individuals in class, our teachers and employers, and also beyond high school years.

So they can have a better grasp on what they can be confronting the future and have to how to deal with it when they get me on high school, which is very important, because you know, how some people have a stereotype about black men and how to deal with stress and pressure. We want to empower our bow, it was our young men, have a better chance at succeeding when they have those kind of confrontations. Okay. Ms. Randall, you want to talk a little bit more to about this? Yeah. I wanted to share with you, Dee Dee. Again, thank you for having us on this program. Absolutely. You know, we try to develop leaders in this program. I tell these young men, the sessions that we're at, you know, we want to make sure that you stand up to make a contribution to humanity and society. Now, that's society. We want it to be Pensacola. You know, when you get, go up and get your college education, get out to military or whatever, and you become successful. You become that entrepreneur, that businessman, you know, we want you to come back to Pensacola. Now wherever you go, we want you to be successful, we want you to talk about the program, but

we want you to be a contribution, a positive contribution to our society. Okay. That's what we want. Very good. I know with tomorrow's 100 program, Fred, you're mentioning some of the things that you all do, basic communications in public speaking. Right. Let's talk about that. Yeah. We have a session on that. We're here bringing Dr. Williams, coming to talk about sort of life skills, and of course of that, Dr. Kirk Jones, coming to talk about the importance of visiting yourself and having the presence. And when you speak, Leon Dax, I hope to afford a crest fee when our members, by the way, Dr. Jones is also, talks about the same type of thing, a marketing yourself and visiting yourself. So very important. We stressed those kind of tidbits, the information with the bows, archsourcing, state farm agencies, when our members also talked about last week and a session last week. And so we want to share with them, you know, we want to give them some, well, we've done what we've seen.

We'll take the be successful, what it takes to get where you want to go, give them, again, a roadmap, how to get there, they're going to vote, you know, teach them things that we know to them early on, they need to be able to empower them to be succeeded, even more so to be remarkable, as I've said, in their successes, that's one of the passions. And we, this solution to develop a program, our program is to develop leaders. That's our focus with these bows and sort of- You need to know how to speak and project and be confident about the sort of thing. And I know that even, and I know, I'm just speaking just being someone who is walking your shoes, of course, like these gentlemen gone to high school and that sort of thing. I can remember when I was teased about how I talked and my mannerisms and at that time they used to say you wanted to be white. I don't know what they say in school now, when you, you know, speak correct English and your nouns and your verbs agree, and you're, and you're dotting your eyes and crossing your tees, and you're using your hands and your mannerisms are different. And all of a sudden, you just want to be white. And now I get to say-

And that was so unfortunate. It was so unfortunate, but you know what, it bends you and you become a better person. You know, I'm a news anchor and I have been for 20 years now, being white, if that's what their definition is, would be white. And you get through it. And I got- And I got- I did. But some kids do not do as well as you did. And that's why this is so important, because sometimes like you're saying you have to reach back. And that's why when you're saying you do basic communications and public speaking, that will hone, you know, some of those skills and sharpen that for- for these gentlemen and other gentlemen in your program. Let's go and talk about some other core values, controlling anger. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we had- The Williams of Psychologists at Baptist Hospital talked this class for us also, visioning and life skill. It said a great job. It was a great session. Dr. Williams was a super job of telling children, young men, what's in front of them in terms of situation, the man encounter, how to handle situations, how to set goals, how to have visions, objectives and reach those goals, objectives and understand that you have to plan your work and work your plan.

Okay. It's, oh, Sam, but it's still true. If the plan you work, work your plan. If you- if you- if you fail to plan, then your plan does fail. You know, oh, they still bring to- even the day. So we try to teach those kind of just- philosophies to our- to our bows in the course of the year. And again, the- the core value in anger-mandering classes is very important because unfortunately, a lot of times, you know, as an attorney, say, young men, you can run about police officers or someone with a torch and sometimes they react badly, if you will, badly. It's something that- it's absolutely when it can be diffused and knowing what to say, how to respond, how to act is very important and get- and get them beyond that situation and moving on to the next day. We take those kind of- actually those kind of situations that they can hopefully do better in and then not have had our program information and criteria taught to them. Okay. And feel free, Mr. Randall, at any time, to expand on that. Well, you know, I- I- I- I- I- I- I love training program and one of the things that Mr. Randall began to talk about is the conflict resolution.

You know, we- we talk about a lot of conflict resolution, how to resolve situations. And that's what a lot of these young people face within school because of- because of all of the peer pressure, they have- you know, you- you really got to know how to deal with conflict resolution, dealing with the police. Let's just talk about it. We have Captain David Alexander to, uh, to, you know, to come and give a session. He's been very- That's a great question on how young African-American men need to deal with the police. What are the expectations if you'll stop by the law? And those are critical elements that young African-American men- actually, everybody needs to know- Everybody needs to know what the expectations are because at that particular time, it's your stop. That officer's in control. That's it. And you need to know how to respond positively, not to get in a situation where you would escalate a situation to be much, much higher. They're people, too. You know, at the end of the day, I mean-

And something- And heaven's here to do that, and it know how to respond, you know, properly, properly, and give them a different situation, also can be lifesaving, too. Yes, it can be. Exactly. Okay. Let's go on and talk about some of these other things, being physically responsible. And this young man, just before we got started on the set, Brandon was talking about how he was working his budget and that sort of thing. And I was quite impressed for a 17, I just told your age and that, and that, and now on you, named, and the Boo Boo. 17 years old and already talking about working his budget. That is great. You guys are really doing some wonderful things, Mr. Camp Yesoriano, really, because- You got to be mysterious about that. You got to be mysterious about that. You got to be mysterious. You got to be mysterious about that. They came with skills, I read through the bad guys, but they- Okay. These are the good men before they came. They're just trying to expand and they're- they're even more so- Okay. Than what they already are. These great guys- Yeah, I can tell. But the parents are a good job. The parents credit. They did a good job with this guy. And we'll let you guys talk again in just a few seconds about some of the things that you've learned from the program. But I want to get through with them on the agenda, OK? So we're just going to move on.

Men's health issues. So this is one of your core, how would I say, elements in the big scheme of things for the 100 black men organization here in Pensacola is health and wellness. Can you talk about a little bit about this? Because this is so important. Well, health and wellness is, you know, Dr. Jones actually does our health and wellness seminar and Dr. Crosswright. And that is so meaningful for us. And the thing about it is that we already know that African-American men have a tremendous high rate of prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. This is some of the information. And we kind of partnered with the American Cancer Society to get that information out to the community, that what other signs to look for, to get tested, understand your medical condition. Here are some free clinics and situations exams that you need to see about yourself and take a trip. Well, part of this problem is just educating them that it's OK to go to the doctor and get these things

that have them examined, you know, for prevention. Because it's not easy getting you y'all to the doctor. That is your main theory of minimum. Really, really tough on about that. In income, that's true. There's been many, many cases, personally, that I know what I'm sure everybody here knows that I've had friends that more or less procrastinated with their health and ended up on the bad end of the scale with a problem that may have been corrected early on if they would have probably sold out some medical help. So these young men are learning the importance of doing this? Exactly. And part of it with the Merger Cancer Society also, they're nationally and locally also. OK. With their relate for life locally and also, they all walk locally here in Pensacola, trying to support what they do and get the word out to our communities and they do a great job. Wonderful way out. OK, sexual harassment. I teach that class, basically, from a legal standpoint, in terms of how do we define sexual harassment? We're kind of nuances.

We're kind of touching and looks and growth being. And we're, as you can say, to a female may consider sexual harassment in school, but also in a workplace. These young men are high school seniors that will be out of school next year working, even more so. And four years to be a professional man working professional areas, they need to know, what can we define as sexual harassment? As an intern asking some, which in Aqua's behavior, will subtle things you wouldn't consider to be me offensive from your perspective, from one of those plays perspective, offensive to her. Therefore, it can be called sexual harassment. So understanding the nuances, how we define those things legally, I teach that to the Bose. OK. Now, Capcom Xandr also talked about in terms of the criminal sense David Das. He does a great job in terms of that. In terms of you're out there sort of messing around, things you shouldn't do, because could get your arrested. So we could be able to own the legal in, and also the criminal in, both. We've seen lately in recent news and it's sort of thing a lot of the athletes are getting started. It's a lot more important. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is true, sir. We try to, you know, try to put out your men with information. They know how to handle.

And this is free. And he is free. Oh, this is free. And see, so now, again, a roadmap, you know, what's road to take and what's road not to take. OK. I love this. Addict it. That's wonderful. No, no, no, no, no, love that, no love that class, no love that class. I love that because, let me tell you something, I have learned a lot myself in the edictancy class. OK. That's wonderful, because you're a meeting. I can see a lot of it. I'm publicly admitted. OK, we all have it. And actually, we all have, it's a phenomenal class. Calvin Washington actually teaches that class for us. He actually shows us how to sit down and have dinner correctly and professionally. So you didn't know the little fork was a salad. No, no, no. Don't put your spout in. I mean, you know, we, I learned in curve it's tremendously increased, OK? You know, being able to, how to go out to dinner with a young lady, how to treat her with kindness and treat her like a lady. This is, this is the basic stuff that these young men learn. And, you know, by the time that they finish

with this edictancy class, I mean, they're ready to just take the world by storm. Wow. And I'm telling you, some of the reactions that we have gotten, you know, from some of the parents. Parents, so the dates, you know, a lot of the parents like to come too. Yeah. You said, oh, we like that. Exactly. And then I just did it also. I teach the Bo's how to respond to the service. OK. People are way down you. They have certain feelings and certain things. They want to see and they expect and those type of things. So the nuances are taught to our Bo's about fine, fine dining, fine dining. OK. We are going to talk about a very big, big, big part of this. But I'm going to save it for a second, because I'm sure. And so stick around, because this is the part that you don't want to miss on the awareness show. But I want to turn to our gentleman here on the set who are going through the 14th class of tomorrow's 100. We have, of course, Brandon and Ivory here. And I want to talk to you all about some of the things that Mr. Gantt, as well as Mr. Reynolds, been talking about on this program.

What have you been learning so far? I know that you're coming through as a 14th class. But what has all this done for you and how have you been able to put it into perspective? Right now, and tomorrow's 100s black men, I'm learning responsibility. Not to be lazy, be persistent. Not to fall behind, but go forward. That's why I'm learning so far as class. OK. What about you, Ivory? Focus. Wrinkle, oriented. Just because you see a hindrance on it and a structure, doesn't mean that you should give up on yourself. You can't continue on doing what you want to do. And credit. It hasn't hit me yet. But I love it. I want to have the opportunity to spin my money wisely. And credit can really hurt us. And they introduced us to that. And I wasn't aware of what credit could do with it, could do. Yeah, even as you speak about it, it brought up something. You know, it's a big thing.

Credit, credit. The big C. Have a big C word. The big C. Our searchers took you for a second. Our searchers talked to class last Saturday, needing to the young men, to take people and our members of the organization also want to stay for ages here in town, argue at a great job. They want credit. What it means, how to use it, I can hurt you. Not to get it, how to get it, then how to use it. It was a super class, our top last Saturday. Because your credit is your name. Exactly. I mean, you don't want to mess up your good name. You always want your name to be good. OK. Anything else? We're talking about some of the programs that they just started with this. This is the second session. OK, the second session. Right, second session. Next Saturday, we're going to Christopher, this coming Saturday, the Leon, some Leon Dags, dealership, he was up to the 40 Chris view. He said, well, I want to remember this also, Leon Dags. And I'm going to look at this dealership. We're talking about how to entrepreneur ship. Mr. Dags are going to teach the class for us. We're talking about running a business.

And Mr. Dags are going to shut it with them when he's done. And even though we're kind of saying, you know, in the week ahead and that sort of thing, this is something ongoing. Is that ongoing, exactly? You have to think about, you've got a big drive that comes up in October. And then you do a big banquet in March. Exactly. And so you have some things that are ongoing so that people are interested in getting involved. We're going to tell you how to do that at the end of the show. And you can get that information. And then maybe you can contact Fred and or Neil and find out how you can get your young man involved with these programs and that sort of thing. Now, the big thing that I wanted to say for right about now is the spirituality part of all of this. And I noticed the first thing I ever said was, well, first of all, getting up today was a big blessing. So that made it remarkable. And you're talking about that. Obviously, you gentlemen are very, very spiritually based. You have that basis. Tell us a little bit about yours, Ivory, since you just proclaimed it. So just wrote right off the tone. Well, life isn't easy.

Everybody sees struggles, struggles, struggles. And some I let the father figure, some I let the mother, some I let the ability to be able to stand out, to be an athlete, to be in drama, anything. And I discovered myself because of church. I mean, without church, I probably not be here today, like to be honest. And I got baptized before, but I got re-baptized because of the awareness that that guy has. I was, man, that guy was reborn. Without spirituality, I don't know who I be. I'm just being honest. And that's why I wanted to say that this is a big part of this. And for what about you two, Brandon?

Basically, as I see it, without God, you're nothing. You don't have God in your life. You're not going to succeed. God shows you things that is very remarkable, shows you things that is going to happen, what you're just going to see. I got baptized last two years ago, I think. And I changed from then there. But you have to go to a process. Once you get baptized, all things is going to break loose. And once you got to learn how to handle the things, that's why God is showing you, giving you challenges to get you ready for future-wise things. Now, I'm seeing myself building up to things that is just remarkable to me. I love that word today. It's so remarkable.

I work for the day. The spirituality portion of this tells us a little bit about how important this is. It's very important to our young men understand that they're doing life succeed. It's not on their own accord. Basically, God has a part in everything that they do, part in their lives. As God's grace and where they succeed by and understand that. God gives us free will to do what we need to do. But at the same time, He carries us. And we do what we put to do within the spirit. And we teach that to our bones, understand the spirituality is important, and understand it's a help. It's a strengthening, it's an empowerment. As they go along, because life is an easy, like I always say, it's an easy and all, it's true. And you need that strengthening from that, from the higher source to help you make it through those tough times. So we teach them that. And also to be diverse in what they believe. And we have, rather riding the Jackson, it's a minister, and also a banker in town, teach their classrooms at times, and pass the Charles Mars. But the Emmy pass is also a member of our organization. He teaches a class for us too.

So we have, we have things strong, we're really, really strong, religious figures in organization. And we expose how young men to those men to help empower and strengthen them in our sessions. And notice it was last. Not last is in, is in least last, but last is in, you saved the best for last. So I was looking at it. Randall, you have something to say? Well, you know, we, you have to have a good spiritual base in life. You know, we can teach these young men and show them all of this stuff that they need to do. But they need to understand what their real purpose is. And their real purpose has to come from a higher calling. So we try to encourage them that, to understand it, they have to fall back and have that balance. They have to have a balance of a spiritual life as well, as doing all these things to be successful, to be good leaders. You need to have enough dignity, moral values, and all of that is basically based in spirituality and understanding what God's purpose for your life.

What do you want you to do? Okay. The 100 Black men, do you have 100 members in your organization? No, that's a name, that's a name. Okay, that's what we want to get to now because that's probably an area that you want to work on as well. The membership, of course, exactly. And the membership, you know, we meet each Thursday. I'm sorry, with third Thursday in the month at the Downtown Facilar Library, because I mean, meeting location at this point in time. And you want to become a member of the organization, please give me a call. I'm in the book, I'm returning in time. My number is 850-433-32-330. Give me a call, I'm standing around, and give me a call also. And in that number, in that number, so you make a democratic with about join the organization, please do so. We're here to, we want people that want to give of themselves. My thing, my mouth is, we'll take your time, you got to give. People are busy when they're standing there. But it's important we give back to our community that we help empower young men to be better citizens, to succeed so they can help someone else, as they progress. We got to reach back and help those who come,

who are behind us. But come on. Yeah, we're busy. You don't have to worry. It must be done, it must be done. It must be done. The challenges and the faces of our community are great. So it's going to stop thinking of yourself and think about somebody else. We need to be able to turn our head and say, well, things are going to be okay. We don't address, we don't make things better, things will not be okay. And my mouth is, you know, you're busy, I'm busy awesome. But we'll take the time that you have to give. Give it an hour a week, we'll take an hour a week, an hour a month, we'll take an hour a month. The hour once a week, we'll take that. We'll take what you have to give, and use that to improve some young men and women's lives in this community. So they can go on and they'll say it in the future and develop it and be productive. But what they wind up as they, they're testing. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. What do you have to say about that? We need men to be involved with our young black men. We just need it. You know, we hear a lot of statistics in newspapers on radio, television, day in and day out about the penal system, blacks involved with the penal system.

When they're the intervention can be done in the early elementary years. That's where we need to do the intervention and move right on up. You know, the National Office has an agenda that to start actually at eight years old mentoring and mentoring a lifetime of mentoring. Just continue to keep mentoring, mentoring a lifetime. But not only in our community, we have a need for men to help these young men because they have a lot to offer. You got a lot of people say, well, just like you just said, did he? I'm busy, I don't have the time, I'm tired. Look at helping to make a difference in a young man's life. Making a difference is very, very important. One encouraging word to a young man that's never had an encouraging word could change his life at an instance. So that's what we believe in.

We believe in getting these young men to move, to be motivated, to make a difference in our society, for them to go on and tell other young men about it. So they can come back and be a part of this organization. And you never know what's gonna take the reason. You never know who or what's gonna take the reason, to reach one young man to make a difference. And then you tell his friends and they tell his friends and it's a snowball effect. And I'm gonna affect, you know, is that trickle is that trickle of water is keep trickling, trickling down and pool gets bigger and bigger. And wide and wide. I like to think of that pebble that you throw in the water and then see the ripple just flow from the city. So it's important that we think that, you know, you're taking the problem one by the time. And then one by the time you're taking the problem and you're addressing, you're improving, you get it better and better and better. And it doesn't take a lot of time to help someone improve their lives. And our response to Baves, our web of school, you wanna venture at whatever you wanna do, but help somebody improve their lives. Help make a difference is very important

that they can do that because, you know, it's kind of discouraging me to be about statistics and it's in more blacks and in prison than in college, black males at least. And in college is like 10 and one black men and black women. And those things need to be, we can change that paradigm. We can change our statistics. We can do it. We can do that. We work together and get it done. We gotta believe that we can and we gotta start somewhere. I've been writing and hope to do some things with that soon, but one of the things that I've looked at is when you have the absence of men in a home and in the lives, especially even of women. And it's interesting that you would mention about women changing young women and young men's lives because this is a spillover effect into women. If these young men don't know how to treat women, if we don't educate them early on how to be in their home with their families once they've established that, then we're gonna perpetuate a problem that's been growing in the African-American community. Even in the lives of the children overall,

just in the curse you're in the home and you kick in the lives of your child because you're a themer through this, but his mom, I mean, she can't be in his life with him nonetheless. He's still your child. She's still your child. So still be involved anyway. And I wanna also send that message out too, but you're right. We can make a difference right now at this moment. And just sort of have to be an important priority for us to understand that it needs to be done and it needs to be done now. Because we have too many, I think, at this point in the stage in the game, too many of our African-American men not taking the responsibility. If you're not in the home, you still have a financial obligation to be there. You still need to put that time in with that child because like you said, just words of encouragement, a pat on the back, a pat on the head, on the behind part, it's just to say that away, that way to go, way to go, Brandon, great job, Ivory. You need that. And what we're doing also, we have to maintain an increased pool of eligible black males for our black women.

And you know, because unfortunately, a lot of black men are in prison. And they aren't gonna be as productive the otherwise could have been. When we get a tough, get a job, but they have a felony record. And they won't get friends high school, they'll get friends high school and their large numbers. And the black women are still moving on and succeeding and progressing. And so that black males are, we must change that paradigm. And it's very difficult. And it's a long term effects of our population in terms of matching up to our people. It's very difficult being a single mom, myself, or you know, 12 years and raising two kids. You see what the challenges are, you know, and you need, you know that there's a gap when the men aren't as available and are not able to be in the child's life. And I can see the difference in even mine, you know, in the difference in the two, one having that and one not. And you see that. And think about those women who are younger than you are. Right.

When the incidence of black men in prison is increasing, and they're even less of a pool of black men to make this. They think they have even more, even more difficult challenge as time goes on, unless we change this paradigm. Man, I have some of that. Absolutely, just come on in here, Brandon. OK. Ladies, I've been saying women treat it as objects. And it's very, very, it's not right. It's foolish. They're human beings, too. You got to learn how to treat a woman, be respectful, be honest, be trustworthy. Don't be going around to five different women and come back and be in a play, a play. Yeah, basically. OK. I'm just going to put it out there. I mean, I'm over there going. Gosh, girl. Gosh. I mean, it's very foolish seeing that young men and men is growing up going to be something to women that's not supportive. See, my mom's a single mother.

And she does everything for me. She's in the military. And she's just amazing. Day, mom. Good job. She's done a good job. Yeah. Absolutely right. And she's done a good job bringing father figures in my life over a period of time to show me. IE. Show me. OK. Show me different pathways of different things to show. And I see that as well. You're mama loves you. OK. She really loves you. Basically, we just black people. Black men, we just need to learn how to treat our women. OK. If we don't do that, we're going to end up somewhere not sanitary to us. OK. You have a comment to make about that? Yes, I do. Well, my mother, she has raised six kids. Single parents. Basically. Hey.

Yes, sir. Give her a hand. Give your mom a hand. Give her a hand. Give her a hand. That's great. And I've done a very good job as well. Thank you. And of course, you want to see that. Yeah. But see, she's a very strong woman, I really. And I've had one father figure. He's my stepfather. Well, he's not around now. But I still keep in contact with him. And I love him enough, just like I love my mom. Amen. Well, with that. And now he can't to the point of time where I have father figures around me. I just want my mom to be happy. And she's happy now. OK. Mama, don't you cry. She's starting to tear up over there. And I think your mom is very proud of you. And I know she loves you, too, because she knows that you gentlemen need to be affiliated in a program like this that can give you all these core values in life and to have an opportunity to take advantage of this

and it doesn't cost anything. That's what, to me, is just amazing. That this is coming from an organization that is giving up their time to make a difference in the lives of African-American males because you see some of the problems facing our community and some of the challenges facing our young men. And as we sit here and we talk about that, I know that there are people who watch and that they're able to embrace what you all are doing. You know what I'm saying? Over the years, and we've made the sponsor of the Embatis Hospital. Great. And Fred Donovan, engineering firm, best for the engineering firm, and we made the sponsor over the years. And we appreciate their support. Fred Donovan and the Bachelor have done to help us do what we do for these young men. Very good. And hopefully you'll have power. And also got power in the Embatis sponsor so they've been with this for a while. You'll find that when you start naming sponsors, you're going to miss one, so you don't want to do it. Right. Fred's got to learn that dog just kidding. We thank them.

No, no, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. We appreciate them too. And we hope that you get even more sponsors. And I hope that you get even more African-American men to help mentor our young men. Because I can see the positive attitudes. We want to, yeah, that's working with so the damage is the nil and the care earlier. We have 13 bows in this year. And it should be 333 bows. As indicated, it's all free. But see, that's why we're doing the aware show. Exactly. We're going to get you some, OK? We wanted to have you on the program. And I really appreciate you all for coming because you're doing such a positive thing that I think sometimes people just need to be aware that this is out there. I mean, I don't know how these gentlemen found out about it. But I'm glad they did. I'm glad that you all are working with them. I want to come back to you to Ivory and Brandon because I'm kind of just wondering, who are your role models? Who are you looking up to? My role model, my mom. Is your mom? OK. Because she's done everything for me. I travel all, basically, all over the world

because she's in the military. But I just see her as just one of the best things that ever happened in my life. Only problem is is. Oh, be careful. It is me. OK. I just have to stop being lazy, stop trainer like just my friend, but somebody that's authority. Right. You're probably taking her for granted that she'll always be there. Yeah. OK. There comes a thing called tough love. Oh, yeah. And if you have a bit introduced to it, you will. I told you, I know your mom loves you because she's getting you involved with these programs. But there's a thing called tough love that's going to kick you into. And that means while you're taking it for granted, then at one point, she's just going to let you have to deal with not having to be able to take her for granted. OK. So I'm glad you're saying that. And thank you for being honest with us. Yes, ma'am. And I know that I'm going to be fixed. You're going to be OK. You're going to fix it.

You're going to fix it. Before I get out the house. You know what I hope? One, two, three. Treat you like a soldier, huh? Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. His mom is going to, I met your mother briefly. And his mother just, she looks so young and beautiful. I'm glad that she allowed you to come and be on the show. What about you? Who's your role model? Who are you looking up to these days, ivory? I will. A couple. Uh-oh. OK. That's all right. Like, why it's twist, twist, twist, and my mother? OK. I'm my pastor, learning D. West through the third. I've got a little rock. My music instructor, then. Well, I call it my uncle. His name is John Gaines III. OK. And my Gaines counselor, Frank Walker. Oh, it's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. Right. And they helped mold me into the person that I am. Not only will they be in my life now, but I know they'll be in my life later on. So I really greatly appreciate it. That's all right. Where do we see you, gentlemen, in the next few years? Because you're, what, seniors?

Yes, ma'am. OK. Where are we going to see you? What are your aspirations I should be asking? What are your goals? My goals is graduating from high school with 3.0. Go to college at Alabama State University. Join the ROTC program. Get out, go to military, and become officer. That's all right. You let me know if you need some help with Alabama State University. Oh. I heard about that. But you got to do your homework. OK. OK. Very good. I haven't worked in Montgomery years and years and years. I know people there who are very much like these gentlemen who would be more than happy to have you come to the university and be a role model for some of the students even there. OK. That's a very good track you have ahead of you. And by the way, you run track. Let's talk about some of that, too, before I get to you, Ivory. Tell us about that, because that scholarship might get you to Alabama State University. A couple of years, I've been burning THS right here. I've been, you've been doing what?

I've been, I've been burning THS. Burning. Why should I see a student burning THS? OK. The Washington High School student. And I'm really a PHS. OK. OK. You've been burning, let's go outside. OK. We've been burning. It's very rare. But they've been killing us at football right now. OK. But you're going to get them in track. Oh, yeah. OK. Got that. I, where will we see you? Well, at the moment, well, I do. I'm going to a 10-wise college. OK. Tell us about that. My college is a good college. HBC, you want to top colleges in the nation. And it's enrichment of African males, African-American males. There, I want to go to that school, because I had an experience over the summer. It was six-week experience. We stayed on campus. We live with other males, of course.

And a few men are there, too, but they stayed on a clock campus. So you've got a taste of independence with other gentlemen who were like you, OK, working towards their educational goals. What else? Tell us more about the program. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. Right. It was something that's about a philosophy, like four o'clock in the morning, studying, studying. And I had to balance it out with being involved in the choir, a choir, a step team. And like, we had it on a science class. It was robotics. I didn't know nothing about robotics, you know what I mean? Then that was easy. I had to start a real hard for that. But in our exit, I got academic excellence and pre-calculus. By the way, I just want you to know, Pensacola State College has a wonderful robotics program. So you tap into that too before you get out of here

and go to Morehouse. Just had to put that out there. Go ahead, I'm sorry, I'm a dangerous person. And I got most improved for 10 to 10 writing. And good. But what was remarkable, what of the day, was somebody told me that I changed their life. That's wonderful. Somebody told me that. And my purpose is to change the world. That's my purpose. That's how you do it. You do it, just stay in your course. Did you share something with the group? I'll tell you, from the inception of making contact with Ivory, and I found out that he was doing that summer residency at Morehouse. This gentleman would text me every morning at 6.30. I mean, we're talking about basic communication. And he still does it.

And he still does it. Wow. I mean, I give one to him. All right. Me also, I get text out of it. I did not know how to text until Ivory got obsessed with me with texting. So thank you, Ivory. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. That's what you have to have that. Text or interracial texts. You write those yourself, Ivory? Yes, yes. It's racial texts every morning. It's racial texts. Oh, really? He writes themself. Yes. So that's a very good thing. I used to do that too. All right. I usually, if I had my phone, I would write all a little small poetry, because I write poetry a lot. OK. Because it calms me down. So I would write you something and start your day, you know. It'd be good. Let's get it over. I'll wait and wait for it, Brenda. I'll wait for it. OK. It's in the to me. It's in the to me. It's in the to me. It's in the to me. You know how you say you send a mail. It's in the to me. It's in the to me. OK. I like that to give an inspirational word to share that with other people. There's a lot in there. And when we finish more house, what will be your discipline? What is your plan?

I went to attend more house copies. I want to go to music. And recently, I've been taking piano lessons. I'm not that good yet, but one day, I'll get up there. No problem. And if I'm using them, philosophy are religion, because I want to spread the gospel in order to change the world. OK. Ain't nothing wrong with that now. You want to break out of the tomb here for us? In tomb. Sing something. You think of something. You can sing any spiritual song you want to sing or anything. Make it a spiritual song. I'm thinking, you're having ideas. Let's think. How about his eyes on the sparrow, amazing grace? Anything. I'm just trying to get your voice. Something that's just singing school. Oh, amazing grace, how sweet the sound they're saying. Oh, rain, like me.

I was lost, but now I found was blind. But now I see Mr. I've re-littered. There's a hole out there. Right. I'm coming to you. What do we got from you today, Brandon? What would you like to share with us? Maybe one of your poems or something? Well, anything. I can break out, too. OK, let's hear it. Go for it. I can only sing the amazing, I can't remember the amazing grace song. OK. I'm just going to sing how sweet the sound. OK.

OK. All right. Amazing grace. Yes. All right. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. I love it. That's really sweet. I love a lot. There it is. And we don't need to sing for you. All right. You're like a bastard missing. That's how you eat it. That's how you eat it. But they have those songs in their heart. Absolutely. And that's a wonderful thing. That is true. We just have a few moments left to wrap things up, but I want to get any additional information out there for anyone who's looking and would like to get it. Yes, sure. Well, our program starts in August this year and we take students into October of the year. It's our like deadline for new students. We're a big, big, a great compilation banquet in March of every year. Our Bo's, the young men, we're our tales, like tales. OK.

Have an escort. We have a hotel here in the formal dinner for the young men. And it's a great event that the moms, dads, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, neighbors all come and play the formal regalia and it's a great evening for celebrating. I'll be looking for my invitation. You will get well. Thank you very much. So the brain at the end of the program in our sessions is a super event. I'll be happy to. Every year. I'll be happy to. Every year. Very good. I'm glad to have that information out there. Somebody needs to get in touch with you all to get more information about your program. We, did he, we start, we try to start right after the boutique and contacting young, the juniors in high school, the prospective seniors for the following year through the guidance councils in the school. We can be contacted. Contact Mr. Gadget. I'm glad it's his office so you can contact Neil Randall at 510-850-516-3081. Okay. Very good. And would you like to encourage someone to get involved in this program because you can see the benefits of it? Woo. You have one minute. Get in the program.

Please. You learn a lot. That's wonderful. Have it. What about you? Well, you, look at some. You can, you cannot judge. Okay. You have to go beyond the perception. You have to experience it. My experience in 100 Black men and so far is a beautiful experience. It's a blessing, like I said before. Okay. And for anybody that wants to mold yourself, to define himself, this will be a good program for that. Okay. It sounds very good to me. I love it a lot. All right. And once again, thank you all for joining us for the Aware Program. Thank you. And also would like to say you have so many people who have already gone through this program and they're doing wonderful things right here in the Pensacola community. You may be surprised with who some of those people are. Thank you all for doing what you're doing, giving up your time and keeping this program so strong in our community and giving us these young men and molding and shaping them. Absolutely. Congratulations. And all your endeavors, we wish you the best on behalf of the Aware Show. Thanks for being here.

All right. And for the remarkable program, we thank you once again, we had Frederick Gantt and Neil Randall of the 100 days giving me a drum roll over here of the 100 Black men of Pensacola and Cooperated. We also were joined by Mr. Brendan Noy. Yes, ma'am. And I've relented the fourth. Thank you all for being here. Follow us here at the Aware Show. Thank you so much for joining us until the next time I'm D.D. Sharp saying stay informed and stay warm. Thank you.