Mentoring

To become a BLMA Mentor, click on the link to register

BLMA partners with Mentor Greater Milwaukee (MGM) and selected school personnel to bring Black and Latino male community mentors into high schools every month for real, honest conversations with youth about life, goal setting, and applying the BLMA Twelve Guiding Principles. BLMA will assist school-based staff in facilitating monthly sessions by reviewing topics and materials prior to each school’s chosen session date. A typical hour-long session includes:

• Opening self-care activity that incorporates mindfulness and journaling.
• Discussion questions derived from our 12 Guiding Principles, where mentors and mentees engage in a combination of informal and formal dialogue
• Catered lunch (where applicable) 

Why is mentoring essential to BLMA?  According to Bernadette Sanchez, PhD in Community Prevention Research, both formal and informal

mentoring:

• Lessens the negative effects of racial discrimination by promoting Black & Latino boys' racial identity, leading to positive effects in various aspects of their lives.
• Benefits Black & Latino boys in a range of areas; including academics, social-emotional well-being, mental health, and the prevention of risky behaviors, through group processes.

So, BLMA is always looking for Black & Latino males to participate as mentors in our monthly sessions! Anyone interested, please click on the link to register as a BLMA Mentor. 

MENTORS TURNED AMBASSADORS

Ambassadors will give our mentees the opportunity to be the leaders that engage, organize, and advance the voice of their peers to inform the decisions made by MPS administration as it relates to Black and Latino students at their schools. They will provide support, strategy, and execution of ongoing and/or future BLMA initiatives. Our goal is to have each BLMA Ambassador gain experience in the following categories:

• School Culture and Climate: Student Council/advisory boards, near-peer mentoring, school events, cultural celebrations
• Arts and Communication: Video/music production, drawing/painting, social media, poetry/spoken word
• Activism and Social Justice: Community outreach, student organizing, volunteering, enhancing awareness in schools and community
• Post-Secondary Success: Pre-college programs, FAFSA, scholarships, entrepreneurship, military pathways
• Literary Societies: "Shaking up" the English curriculum in schools, social justice book fairs, BLMA newsletter, pathways to publication