Leadership

Leadership development is core to who we are and what we believe. Growing young leaders is the best way to develop future leaders for our communities. Giving them the right tools, objective insight, and training them in what they need to know are all part of the process. Young leaders will then be prepared when the moment comes to be stewards of opportunities and of their communities.

We implement leadership development across the four programmatic prongs that we refer to as the “Four for the Future”, which are Mentoring, Education, Health and Wellness, and Economic Empowerment.

Mentoring

Members of our chapter and local volunteers work with the Collegiate 100 to grow corporate and professional pipelines. This collaboration yields opportunities for the Collegiate 100 members to intentionally reach back as near-peer mentors preparing high school and middle school youth for the subsequent phases of life that they will soon encounter. It is through this approach that we fulfill or “Mentoring Across a Lifetime” mantra.

Through one-on-one and group mentoring, we provide youth with the opportunity to reach their potential. We offer mentoring programs for students of all ages, providing the guidance and support that every child needs to succeed.

Education

Education is the key to unlocking positive generational outcomes. Others have deliberately attempted to restrict access to knowledge resources that have the power to open doors that otherwise are inaccessible.  Whether formal or informal, we strive to make sure students have the tools to read and adequately participate in educational processes.

We are advocates for high-quality pre-k services as a resource for the promotion of early literacy. We are also accountable partners for our local school districts and education service providers. We represent the best interest of our students at all times.

Health and Wellness

Legacy is preserved and prolonged through proper nutrition, exercise, access to high-quality healthcare, and mental wellness. African Americans have long been plagued with a number of health problems. This is in part due to the lack of health and wellness education in our community.

We have been wrongfully cultured to work and fight through the pain and illness. We have been led to believe that resilience means ignoring our mental wellbeing. This mindset has endured across generations from slave fields where it was profitable for us to produce like machines and not to feel like human beings.

Our kids and grandkids deserve to have access to our wisdom. We deserve to experience the lives of our great-grandkids as our families build upon the foundations laid by those before them. The 100 Black Men of Greater Montgomery is committed to changing the mindset and growing a new culture around health and wellness.

Economic Development

“Freedom isn’t free” has additional meaning across our communities. For generations, we have paid the price for freedom without equal compensation. Freedom is nonexistent without economic empowerment. We have been lied to about our value and robbed of our value. The good intentions of the Freedman’s Savings Bank fell well short of expectations crimpling the ability of generations that have followed.

Knowing your worth is the first step of setting the right expectations of your value. It is our aim to provide financial literacy resources, job training, entrepreneurship training, and placement pipelines as we restore value in our communities.