Gentlemen of Vision Rites of Passage Enterprises, Inc.

Changing the lives of young men, one statistic at a time.

October 13, 2016

Marlon Wharton, CEO
1218 Shepley Drive
St. Louis, MO 63137
RE: A proposal for implementing community service and social skills
programs
Dear Marlon Wharton,
The Gentlemen of Vision mentoring program has been a great
program that has been servicing surrounding communities since May
of 2009. The program was created because of Mr. Albea and yourself
when you saw an increasing and alarming need to address the issues
and concerns of young socioeconomically disadvantaged males. When
you started the program you believed that there is a lack of
counseling, academics, mentoring, and programs that specialize in
fostering manhood among young males that would curtail the
increasing high school dropout rate. I would know since I am an alumni
member of the program and currently a mentor of the program as well.
No doubt that the proof is in the pudding when people say that Gentle
of Vision is an excellent program. We currently hold a 100% high school
graduation rate in the program.
For my first two years in mentoring for the program, I have been
looking for ways to make the program even better. As you know, PBS
has recently made a documentary on the program, which means we
are getting a lot of exposure and people are getting to see what we are
doing. However, we have been getting recognition due to our main
attraction: Stepping. There was not a lot of footage in the documentary
about community service or other services that we offered. The reason
for this is because we were not as focused on those things like we
should have been. I remember when I was in the program in high
school, the program was highly focused on community service and
people coming in and speaking to us and talked about basic life skills.
Having the opportunity to go and do community service and having
people come in help me understand that its not all about me but you
should be taking care of those around you as well.

Gentlemen of Vision Rites of Passage Enterprises, Inc.

Changing the lives of young men, one statistic at a time.

In my short time of being a mentor of this program, I have had

the children come and ask me if we had community service
opportunities that they can attend. I have also had children come to
me and ask how can they budget money, how to tie a tie, how to study
for test, etc. I personally believe that these are the most important
things to me and it would be great to have programs set in place
because of all the inquiries I have been receiving. I believe I have come
up with a solution on how we can incorporate those old values and
keep stepping a major component of the program as well.
Ill first start off with community service. I propose that we
continue to add more to the program since we are being recognized on
a national level. Members of the organization should complete 20
hours of community service a semester. Community service should be
a vital part of our program! The purpose of doing community service is
to engage in activities that will look great on your rsum and college
applications. It is also good with Building camaraderie and teamwork
but most importantly its helping the children in our program make a
difference.
Still speaking on community service it can contribute to a lot of
positive outcomes. We will focus on the academics Students who
participate in community service learning tend to do better in school. It
is a great way to follow up on and supplement subjects that have been
covered in the classroom. Students who do community service work
learn that they can actually make a difference with what they do. This
helps students better understand their own competence, leading to
more self-confidence and a can-do attitude that can spread to their
work and academic pursuits. Community service opens students up to
a wealth of networking opportunities, allowing them to build new
relationships within their community as they contribute. Students can
meet new people, work with new organizations, and strengthen their
ties to the community. As students work within their community, they
learn that they can be responsible for making great things happen.
This helps to build a sense of responsibility in students, and a sense of
pride when they see what they've done is actually helping others. I
know this because I have gained all of the examples above because I
took pride in doing community services and was eager to participate in
all community service opportunities.
I would also propose that we hold social skill workshops and
seminars at least twice a month. When we hold the workshops and

Gentlemen of Vision Rites of Passage Enterprises, Inc.

Changing the lives of young men, one statistic at a time.

seminars we are trying to get the members to invest in themselves. A

goal of Gentlemen of Vision is to have our members stand out from
everyone else. We want our boys to look a certain way, act a certain
way, carry themselves a certain way, etc. We should want to continue
to help in doing that by implementing more seminars and workshops.
In regards to the seminars on how and who will facilitate them
we can have the current mentors we have on staff pick a month and a
topic to present while they find another guest speaker to help them
build more onto what they discussed. For example, I will dedicate
November to teach the members how to tie a tie for the first seminar
of the month. Then, I will bring in another person (particularly someone
who is educated on the subject) to come in a build on from the
presentation I presented. In the first seminar the boys will be exposed
to the information that is being presented to them, so they can get
familiar with the information. In the second seminar, they will be able
to apply what they learned into real life situations.
I have several topics of social skills and personal/character
development already listed. Most boys when they get into the program
doesnt know how to tie a tie and since we do a lot of events that
require them to dress up this is a vital seminar that would yield good
results. We can explain the importance of a tie, the different styles and
finally how to actually tie one in various styles that they like. We can
also bring up the topic of studying skills since the members grades are
a big factor of whether they stay on the active roster. We can discuss
proper test preparation tips, how to use flashcards, time management
when studying for tests, etc. I believe money management should be
another important seminar because of tall the trips that we take out of
time. There has been several times where the members would spend
all of their money in the mall and buying snacks and wont have any
money on the way home. Showing them how to budget their money
and teaching them the difference of a necessary vs. unnecessary
purchase. And lastly, business etiquette and business dress. This
seminar is going to teach the boys how to be professional, how to
dress for the occasion, and how to carry themselves a certain way. This
would go great for how to color coordinate with your shirts and ties,
how a suit should look on you, getting their measurements so that they
can get their own suits and get the right fit.
When reflecting on the individuals that have graduated from the
program and has been accepted into college, we have several success

Gentlemen of Vision Rites of Passage Enterprises, Inc.

Changing the lives of young men, one statistic at a time.

stories within our 100% high school graduation rate. One of our recent
graduates of the 2015-2016 class, Cameron Johnson, is the prototype
of what we want these young men to look like in this program.
Cameron was the President of the organization for 2 years before
graduating high school. He was also a step captain for 3 of his 4 years
in the program. Cameron was number 5 out of 160 in his grading class.
To him anything under an A in his coursework was unacceptable.
Since then, Cameron is currently attending University of MissouriKansas City pursing his Bachelors in Biology. Cameron is striving to be
a Cardiologist when he completes all of his studies. All of that is
accredited to the seminars and opportunities that were exposed to him
at that time.
The cost of providing more community opportunities and seminars
wouldnt cost you anything since we will be having the other mentors teaching
the classes and other volunteers come in to speak. We can utilize our
connections that we have with other people in different professions come and
speak to our children. We should start getting the seminars going next month
(November) but we can start community service right away. I already have a
opportunity through the FoodBank to package up food for the homeless and I
have another opportunity with the Homeless Shelter.
As you can see, I have gone above the call of duty and invested
my own efforts to find ways that we can further the mission and true
vision of the organization. By setting up these seminars and promoting
more community service, I can guarantee that this organization will
continue produce more boys like Cameron and can be outstanding
citizens of society. I look forward to continuing to play a key role within
the department, and given all of my recent efforts to make the
organization even better, I am confident that you will approve these
suggestions. Please let me know if there are any questions.