NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT
Our Mission
The MISSION of the National CARES Mentoring Movement is to secure, heal and transform the lives of impoverished Black children by inspiring, recruiting and mobilizing masses of caring Black men and women to mentor and nourish them. Our national volunteer affiliate network connects adults to local youth-serving organizations. Our national group-mentoring programs focus on the emotional, social and academic development of our children and the wellness of the adults who parent, mentor and educate them.
The Vision
We ENVISION a nation in which all Black children are loved, have access to quality, culturally competent education and are supported by well-resourced families and communities living in harmony and guided by faith. We envision a world in which African-American children and families are deeply rooted in mutual love and the history of Black people; and where they are respected for all that our foreparents withstood and contributed to enrich the United States and the world.
Guiding Philosophy
Our guiding philosophy is captured in the manual A New Way Forward: Healing What’s Hurting Black America (ANWF), a meticulous and comprehensive healing curriculum developed by a brain trust of more than 60 of the finest minds in the academic, wellness and advocacy fields. Its goal is to instill in us adults the principles and practices that lead to personal wellness, inner peace, prosperity and mutual love.
IN THE FIELD
What We Do
Our CARES Affiliate network in 58 U.S. cities recruits caring volunteers and connects them to where they are urgently needed: in schools, local youth-serving organizations including our own, and detention centers and reentry programs located in communities that are disrupted by poverty.
In Oakland, CA...
Oakland/Bay Area CARES has partnered with Campaign for Black Male Achievement using the Wellness Mentoring Circles model, a group mentoring strategy to support the positive outcomes of middle school and high school boys in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and placed-based centers in Alameda County, and at select sites within the Sacramento Unified School District.
It Takes a Village
Linking arms and aims in a circle of support, National CARES is building the programs and helping to drive the public-private collaborations that will be pivotal in ensuring that our children living in poverty are provided the tools needed to override structural barriers to sustainability. Every child can and will become contributors to their family and community–if we choose that outcome–together. Because it is only through working together that we be able to say truthfully, we live in America, the Beautiful.