Brand New Youth Mentoring HBCU Trip

The HBCU Exposure Trip will allow Brand New Youth Mentoring to take 25-30 youth from the Mt. Pleasant, Buckeye, and Kinsman neighborhoods to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the southeast.  The trip will take place from July 27 to July 31.  The students and chaperones will leave from and return to Zelma George Recreation Center.

This project was identified by youth in Brand New.  They requested to take a trip to HBCUs.  Planned colleges include West Virginia State University, North Carolina Central, North Carolina A & T, and Shaw University. Youth will also visit The Outer Banks, which was once the largest settlement of freed slaves in the south, as well as the International Civil Rights Museum, Harpers Ferry National Historic Site, and the Warnersville neighborhood of Greensboro, NC which was also established by freed slaves.

If everyone does a little, then together it becomes a lot. Be a part of the village and support the next generation. The goals of the trip are to expose youth from the neighborhood to HBCUs, so that they will be able to envision themselves in college and as professionals, to teach youth that they can accomplish anything they wish to do if they work together, to rally the community behind the youth and to show youth that their community believes and supports them.

Brand New Youth Mentoring will conduct several fundraisers to reach the $20,000 project goal. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some event dates may change.

Chipotle Fundraiser
March 11, 2020
4p-8p
9761 Vista Way
Garfield Hts, OH 44126
Completed--Total Raised:  $494.08

Coin Drive
Zelma George Recreation Center
March 20
4p-7p
3155 Martin Luther King Drive
Cleveland, OH 4414
Completed--Total Raised:  $242.81

Community Clean-Up
March 28
Time TBD
Brand New Safe House
4126 E. 114th St
Cleveland, OH 44105

Bowling Party--April 19*
5p-8p
Maple Hts Lanes
15809 Libby Rd
Maple Hts, OH 44137

Raffle begins - May 1

Angelo's Pizza Fundraiser
May 13
all day - dine in or delivery--mention Brand New Youth Mentoring
13715 Madison Ave
Lakewood, OH 

Dairy Queen Fundraiser
June 5,2020
3p-6p
5713 Mayfield Rd
Cleveland, OH 44104

Brand New Youth Mentoring will also perform the following steps to prepare for the trip:

Complete payment on bus

Complete payment on hotels

Purchase tickets for educational trip sites 

Reserve group rooms at area restaurants (when necessary)

Education is powerful. Education is the foundation of a strong community. The more that young people are exposed to education, the more they are able to strengthen the community, not only in the present but in the future. Educational attainment in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood is extremely low. This project will show youth the benefits of college and inspire them to work harder in school so that they can attend college. Fredrick Douglas once said that it’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. This project can change the trajectory of their lives from a pathway to prison to a pathway to prosperity.

Former youth participants have written letters to mentors in Brand New to share how the mentoring program taught them to give back to their community and they return as mentors. Seeing a group of youth together in the community working for a positive goal is a powerful message.