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Guide Right Best Practices ‘MENTORING THROUGH A PANDEMIC’ EDITION V0LUME II—JULY 2021
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3 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices - JaCorey Calloway revjcalloway@trenholmstate.edu Herman Harris drhermanleoharris@gmail.com Due to the pandemic, our Seventh Annual Black History Month Program was held virtual-ly via ZOOM. Prior to the meeng, Brother Kel Ward, Co-Director and his grandson, Ar-mon, a second year Kappa Leaguer physically presented Pioneer awards to the awardees and took pictures. At the ZOOM meeng, awardees showed their awards and thanked the Kappa Leaguers, then oered words of encouragement during these trying mes. This annual event began in 2014 aer Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, a sub-urb of St. Louis. During that me, Sam Boyd III, former Polemarch, was Guide Right Direc-tor and he wanted to recognize a number of Brothers who were prominent and made signicant contribuons during the unrest. That rst year the awards went to Captain Ron Johnson, now rered, Missouri State Highway Trooper and Aorney Anthony Gray, law-yer for the family of Michael Brown. In subsequent years, the Pioneer awards recognized trailblazers in various categories to include medical professionals, women shaering ceilings and making HERSTORY, and government. This year, in spite of the pandemic, the tradion connued when the Kappa Leaguers recognized polical trailblazers. specially during the pandemic. went to the homes presented the awards in person. The 2021 honorees include the Honorable Cori Bush, the rst Black woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representaves from Missouri, represenng the First Congressional District of Missouri; the Honorable Ella Jones, the rst Black mayor of Ferguson, Missouri ;and Sheri Vernon Bes, the rst Black Sheri elected in St. Louis. In their remarks, the awardees shared the importance of Black History Month. Black History is important for the culture. In spite of the pandemic, we wanted to connue the tradion. We wanted to connue to expose and educate our young men about the greatness of their elders and inspire and encourage them to strive to be their best selves. This allowed the students to understand that they have a strong support system that will assist them as needed. Staying in constant contact with the stu-dents. Calling them weekly to check to see how they are doing personally and to see if they need any assistance with school work. Carl Dement dementce@gmail. com We had a conference during the school day at the school. The conference was virtual. We had guest speakers. The Kappa Leaguers would come to the conference room. The conference was from 9:00am to 12:00pm. We saw success with virtual conference either during the school day or aer school. We physically saw the members engaged in the training. We give the mem-bers journal to take notes. We would have conversaon about the topics and their notes. The notes allows them to provide feedback .
4 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Billy Johnson Jr billygjohnsonjr@gmail.com One of the best pracces we implemented this year in response the isolaon and de-pression that our young men have been experiencing due to shelter at home orders, is a trivia game using the Kahoot! app. Brother Rob McGowan added the fun, com-peve game element to his monthly Melanated Minute segment in which he talks to the Kappa Leaguers about current events, their connecons to Black History, and their impact on the lives of Black men. The Kahoot! app allows Kappa Leaguers to easily log on to the site and compete in real me. The app tracks who gets the correct answers the fastest and calculates the results which are shared on the Zoom screen. The Kappa Leaguers are excited to track their performance. Topics range from current events, to polics, to sports, to music and entertainment. This acvity has increased engagement in the meengs. It is a fun and memorable way to discuss Black History and other informa-ve topics. We also award points to the winners who receive cash prizes. We recently moved this acvity to the beginning of our meengs so that we can kick o the meengs with more energy. - Mark Havener elolme@gmail.com More focus on social acvies. In Sacramento near the start of the pandemic there were two students at local schools who com-mied suicide. Based on that and research that was coming out at the me, we realized that our young people were struggling with feelings of isolaon, and we knew we could provide assistance. So we added a number of items to our schedule that were social - Kappa League Book Raps (a book club featuring culturally signicant books...we started with March, Books 1-3), Friday Night at the Movies, and video game tournaments (with the support of some of the other the Western Province Guide Right Directors and Brother John Marshall Jones, these became a Province-wide event, and on June 11 will be a naonal event). This has made for a full agenda, which means extra work for the mentors, but I think it's been worth it. These addions were volun-tary, and meant to increase social interacon among our Kappa Leaguers. It became obvious early on that many of our young men had become "Zoomed out" because they were forced to aend their classes and other meengs virtually. We didn't want to exacerbate that issue by trying to force them to aend these add-ons, but we want them to know that Kappa League is al-ways here and available for them. In addion to our social acvies, we look for ways to increase our regular acvies and make them stand out as something more interesng than other Zoom meengs they are asked to parcipate in. Our young men par-cipated in a virtual Youth Financial Workshop hosted by the Sacramento Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. where they had an opportunity to interact with the Delta Academy girls. We have also started adding games to the end of our Kappa League meengs (at the suggeson of the Kappa League President, Zaiden Bush). We have used Kahoot and Quizzes, and award a small prize ($10 gi card) to the winner. The games increase engagement for our young men, and having something to look forward to at the end seems to make the meengs more enjoyable for them. These acvies have allowed us to reinforce the idea to our young men that they are not alone. While we sll oer our normal mentoring and leadership training, we have tried to posion our program as a posive social outlet at a me when that has been sorely needed by the young people in our community.
5 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Shawn Armour shawn.armour@sealenupes.org Microso Teams - Kappa League Sessions: We have been using the sealenupes.org Teams environment to host our weekly Saturday sessions since the summer of 2019 in a 1-to-many format. We have consistently built a following week-in and week-out. We have covered topics from mental health, stocks, social media experts, Entrepreneur opportunity, e-quee, personal hygiene, Covid, George Floyd, police reform, and many other topics that are eecng the young men. The success of the program comes from two factors. First, the program setup of 1-to-many where we pair the youth with 3-5 Kappa Men that have shown interest in the programming and match the value prole that we have created to have common interest with the Kappa Leaguers. The 1-to-many gives the Kappa Men an opportunity to only have to touch the young men once a week. but having 3-5 Kappa Men means that the Kappa Leaguers are touched every week. The other factor is having program-ming that appeals to the youth and our programming of Stock Market Challenge, Social Media Experts, CEO- Career Entrepre-neur Model, and Workforce Preparaon has had a favorable adopon from all youth that come to the programming. No maer what week they come they get feed and so do the Kappa men that aend. Another success factor is having the Kappa TV tourna-ment, giveaways and picture me at every class for parcipaon keeps the youth coming back for more. Stephen Mitnaul guideright@phillyachievementacademy.com 1) Having breakout groups during each zoom meeng 2) Virtual college tour 3) Games/prizes during meengs 1) To expect students to remain engaged on a zoom call with over 25 people is not realisc. Our chapter decided that if we had to be virtual, we wanted to nd a way for the students to stay engaged, build a rapport with their fellow KLers, and build a bond with their mentors. Accordingly, each of our session had a general topic for the enre body of students and then breakout groups where the same 8-10 students would meet with the same Kappa Brother. Students felt this gave them a chance to get close to the people in their breakout group and ask quesons they didn't feel comfortable asking in the larger seng; Kappa Brothers felt this gave them a chance to check in with how things were going personally with his students. 2) We facilitated a virtual college tour with the admissions oces of Bloomsburg University and the University of Pisburgh. These presentaons were something admission oces already had together so it was an easy win for our chapter as all we had to do was coordinate the date. We involved undergraduate brothers at these instuons to give the KLers a chance to hear from current college students as well. The KLers that aended enjoyed because it gave them a chance to hear from colleges they were considering joining -- especially making it easy for them to aend because the distance would have made that tougher than usual. 3) Again, engagement during zoom meengs gets dicult -- and especially gets dicult over the program year as zoom fague weighed on our KLers. We found that having trivia or even games like "nd an object in your house that's _____" would (a) keep the students engaged, and (b) help make sure the students kept their cameras on. KLers provided the feedback that this kept them engaged as well and was something they looked forward to as they thoroughly missed the in-person engage-ment.
6 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices -- Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com Adopt-A-Family for Christmas Program. Giving gis to the enre family and playing their instruments (e.g. trumpets) of Christmas music, while the family opened their gis on screen and virtually . The reason why it was a successful virtual event because it kept the Kappa Leaguers engaged and interested in something other than themselves. They learned and arculated that giving back to a family in need made them understand what leaders in the community must do. They expressed that the pandemic and quaranning at home should not keep them from their responsibilies to be lead-ers in the community. They expressed that they understood that it is more necessary to give back in mes of need . Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com Virtual College Tour of Michigan State University The Kappa Leaguers were engaged and were excited parcipants because the tour was conducted by the undergrad brothers of Delta Pi. Because the college age young men conducted the virtual tour of the whole campus and discussed, not only the academic life, but the social life of the uni-versity, the Kappa Leaguers stayed en-gaged and were very inquisive. Because of the great tour that they received by our undergrad brothers, a few of our Kappa Leaguers applied to Michigan State Univer-sity and plan to aend. Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com Virtual Reading Program with children of Detroit; Tales of Virtue The Kappa Leaguers were able to play the role of mentor. They are normally be-ing mentored to. This program allowed them to read to children ages 3 to 8, in a 6 week program, where the children looked up to them as leaders. This gave the Kappa Leaguers the lesson that you are never too young to reach back and be a mentor to younger children. The Tales of Virtue reading program curriculum was also a culturally competent program that helped our Kappa Leaguers understand that it is important to not only read to the children, but to make sure that they learn about the greatness within all of us. Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com A pen pal leer wring program with senior cizens of the Pearl Wright Senior Cizen Center in Royal Oak Township, MI The Kappa Leaguers learned that not only do they need to give back to the community, but to also seek wisdom from our elders that have lived long lives. The senior cizens of the Pearl Wright Center shared leers with our Kappa Leaguers and exchanged "Pearls" of wisdom with them. The Kappa Leaguers also parcipated in a workshop to learn how to write a personal leer, since most of them had never done so because they only used modern technology.
7 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com Townhall discussion on social and criminal jusce reform and their role of what they need to do in the future as leaders The Kappa Leaguers were interested and engaged in a formal dialogue with at state expert on the issue of race, social injusce, and criminal jusce reform. They opened up in the dialogue to talk about their anxiety when they were in public, parcularly when they had police encounters. This was a rst in a series of these townhall discussions that the Kappa Leaguers will have. Richard Smart rsmart3@aol.com Kappa League Book Club The Kappa Leaguers read the Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. The enjoyed learning about the life and mes of a civil right leader. They expressed enthusiasm about learning how he was when he was their age and how he made mistakes in his life, and evolved and grew to become the man that he was. They also seemed genuinely excited about our bi-weekly discussions about the various ups and downs of Malcolm's life. They were challenged each week to compare and contrast how they think that Malcolm would handle a situaon as compared to how they thing that Marn Luther King would handle the same situaon. These discussions were oen vigorous when they were challenged to discuss this contrast on contemporary issues that they face today.
8 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com Mental Health Iniave This allowed us to bring in mental health professionals to educate our parents, Kappa Leaguers and brothers about mental health. We had several young men in our program that weren't doing well through the Covid pandemic and we were able to pair them with mental health professionals to get the proper help they needed. Most of them didn't have any resources to assist with the issues that were developing from the pandemic. We gave them the necessary resource and they took advantage of it. This resulted in much more producve kids and beer relaonships with their parents and peers. This also lead to a Mental Health Iniave throughout the Eastern Province tle Kourageous Konversaons. Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com We conducted a Virtual Mother's Day Brunch & Paint Party This was a special event for our mom's and their sons. This paint party was our way of giving the Kappa League moms an opportunity to connect again with each other and also to reconnect with their sons. They have told us this was the best event they have been to. We did a series of videos that are on our Kappa League YouTube channel from each of our Kappa Leaguers that parcipated. The videos were tled "What Makes My Mom Special". There were mothers in tears aer they heard the videos. We wrapped up with a video of photos over the years of their sons. Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com During the pandemic, we ulized and leveraged our Naonal NSBE partnership. We had a series throughout the year called Technology Tuesdays. During these events, we introduced our young men to coding and various aspects of the STEM arena. We had dierent professionals as guest speakers as well as various coding compeons. It exposed our young men to various elds within the STEM spectrum. Several of our graduang seniors decided to major in STEM majors as a result of being introduced to these career opons.
9 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com Common Black College Applicaon Night This helped us get all of our graduang seniors accepted into college and 2 of our juniors accepted into college. Also, it gave us the opportunity to sponsor other Kappa Leaguers from Daphne Alumni Chapter as well to apply to college. Daphne Alumni Chapter was facing some economic challenges with their graduang seniors being able to apply to college so we granted them 15 Common Black College Applicaon sponsorships which allowed all of them to apply to college. Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com Fall Virtual College Fair It exposed our Kappa Leaguers and the general community to colleges they had never heard of. It also introduced our Kappa League program to college recruiters that weren't aware that Kappa League existed. This has strengthened our relaonship with these universies and it also started a scholarship for all Kappa Leaguers across the country that are accepted to Benedict College. Now, any incoming freshman that idenes himself as a Kappa Leaguer is entled to a $5,000 scholarship at Benedict College. That is a direct result of our Virtual College Fair. Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com College & Career Success Iniave (C2SI) We used a curriculum designed by Brother Joseph Lyons. He is the Director of Career Planning and Placement/ACES program at Virginia State University. We currently have 18 former Kappa Leaguers that aend VSU. They have also brought addional young men with them to parcipate in the mentorship of our C2SI program. They have learned interview skills, life skills, received internships and received countless hours of mentorship through our College & Career Success Iniave. One of the young men's mom was listening in on the mock interview session and she is a human resources director. She interrupted and thanked us for what we are doing. She said that our Black young men don't get exposed to these skills and it causes them to miss opportunies because they don't interview well. This program has grown and is growing faster by the day. Each month we have new young men joining this iniave. COLLEGE PLANNING
10 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com Gaming Night Our gaming night gave our Kappa Leaguers and opportunity to bond together and have fun together through playing various video games. This was the spark for the Western Province to create a province wide gaming tournament which has grown exponenally. Sco Johnson estate_preservaon@yahoo.com Eastern Province Debate Challenge The Debate Challenge gave us an opportunity to partner with Alexandria Fairfax Alumni Chapter and several other chapters in the province to create this magnicent event. It gave our young men an opportunity to learn the art of debate and public speaking. They learned how to research topics and arculate their point whether it was posive or negave. It gave them condence in speaking in a compeve environment. COMPETITION & ENGAGEMENT
11 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Carl G. Cunningham, Jr. carlgcunningham@gmail.com The Mobile Alumni Chapter Guide Right Programs (Kappa Knights and Kappa League) thrived through the pandemic. March 18th, 2020, was the last me the Kappa Knights and Mobile Kappa League programs met face to face. The Mobile Kappa League presi-dent, Stefon Ward, at the me, immediately transioned the Kappa Leaguers to Google Meet and Zoom. The Kappa Leaguers held their rst virtual business meeng on April 6. 2020. All business meengs are sll being held virtually. The advisors were the ones who were challenged in regards to converng to the virtual space. The Kappa Leaguers assisted the advisors in navigang various virtual plaorms. The Mobile Kappa Leaguers created a virtual program called, “Brotherhood Connect” which was held twice a month for 30 minutes on Sunday evenings. This me was alloed for the Kappa Leaguers to dialogue with each other and to share their thoughts and feelings regarding the pandemic. These “Brotherhood Connects” also allowed the Kappa Knights and Kappa Leaguers to discuss police brutality, the elecons, and mental health. The Mobile Kappa League has the largest social media following of any Kappa League chapter. The young men took advantage of this space to raise $500 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Alabama and $250 for the American Cancer Society. The Mobile Kap-pa Leaguers also promoted the importance of registering to vote and supported the “get out and vote” campaign. The virtual plaorm allowed the Kappa Knights and Kappa Leaguers to increase their parcipaon with virtual events and acvi-es via the Naonal Guide Right Commission plaorm and through their virtual plaorms. One of the incenves used to increase parcipaon during the pandemic were gi cards (monetary and food). Gi cards were also used to reward academic success (A/B Honor Roll). A record number of Kappa Leaguers made the A/B Honor Roll and were inducted into their high school Naonal Honor Sociees. The impact of the death of George Floyd spurred a partnership with the Intrado Company. On Tuesday, November 19, 2020, Intra-do’s Black Professional Associaon hosted a virtual dinner for the Mobile Kappa Leaguers. The topic was the key winning behav-iors to achieve successful careers. The speaker was Eula Adams, CEO Intrado’s Execuve Board Member and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Jamaray Porter, the Mobile Kappa League Sergeant-at-Arms stated how informave the presentaon was and the knowledge that Mr. Adams shared was informave. The Mobile Kappa Leaguers were excited about the partnership with Intrado. The Mobile Kappa League inducted 23 young men virtually on Sunday, January 24, 2021. This was a rst in the 42 year history of the Mobile Kappa League program. The PlanningTool plaorm was used to disseminate the Kappa League applicaon, to host Kappa League interviews and to connect parents to the advisors. Tradionally, the Kappa Leaguers held their ACT workshops at the fraternity house. The pandemic pushed the workshops to virtu-al space. As a result, more Kappa Leaguers were able to parcipate. The Kappa Leaguers have decided that they want to keep the workshops virtual. The Mobile Kappa League alumni contribuons to the current Mobile Kappa Leaguers has been huge during the pandemic. A vir-tual MKL alumni series was created early on during the pandemic for MKL alums to make presentaons to the current Mobile Kappa Leaguers. This virtual space created an even greater networking opportunity for all former and current Mobile Guide Right parcipants to stay engaged during the pandemic, especially during the lockdown. The Mobile Alumni Chapter Guide Right program (Kappa Knights and Kappa League) is very structured (data driven). The advisors are trained and the Kappa League ocers are highly trained and skilled to operate their Kappa League chapter. It is important that the Kappa League execuve board partake in intense leadership development training (higher than the general membership). The leadership training will allow the advisors to take care of the small day to day operaons of the Guide Right program(s) while the Kappa Leaguers develop their chapter programs based on subject maers that they want to engage or embark on.
12 Mentoring Through A Pandemic Best Practices Mobile Alumni Chapter Guide Right Programs (Kappa Knights & Kappa League) thrived through the pandemic - continued Guide Right Parcipaon Programs College Prep Virtual College Signing Day Virtual College Conversaons With Mobile Kappa League Alums (Monthly) Virtual College Tour (Tougaloo College, Morehouse College, Prairie View A & M University, Troy State University). Social Acon/Community Service Naonal Voter Registraon Day - Signed 234 via social media. Room 2 Read - Purchased children books and created youtube clips of Kappa Leaguers reading the books. These clips assisted parents with book reading for young children. ( hps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxr3l3NN2_g) Virtual Community Service Raised money for Ronald McDonald House, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the American Cancer Society. College Success Mentoring Former Kappa Leaguers (Hosted December 2020 Zoom with Mobile Kappa League alums. A total of 100 alumni joined the Zoom. The Mobile Kappa League alums have a Facebook page with 297 members (hps://www.facebook.com/groups/436750756343069). They are constantly supporng each other. Naonal Mentoring for former Kappa Leaguers (January 15, 2021 for Naonal Mentoring Month.) Naonal Iniaves Online Leadership Conferences (Naonal Kappa League Conference and the Mobile Kappa League Leadership Week, 2020) GR Mentoring Training (August 2020 with Boys Scout of America. Parcipants - Carl Cunningham Jr., Joseph Roberson, and Chris Collier. The Planning Tool - The Mobile Kappa League used The Planning Tool for their new membership applicaon process. Brother, Jeremiah Morman, conducted workshops with Guide Right Director, Carl Cunningham Jr. List all Province Guide Right programs parcipated in: Two Mobile Kappa Leaguers submied for the Southern Province Leon W. Stewart Award. - March 23, 2020 The Mobile Alumni Chapter submied for the Southern Province Jay Crosby Award (Large Chapter). - March 23, 2020 From Brother Kevin Burne, Guide Right Naonal Chair - “Social Acon/Community Service is a Core Focus Iniave of Na-onal Guide Right! We had 2571 people sign our virtual peon. Our students really got engaged in this elecon. Naonal Guide Right combined the Kappa Vong Iniave, “Kappa League TV teams up with Social Cinema” and Naonal Voter Regis-traon Day into #KLgetoutandvote. I applaud all 53 Chapters that parcipated, your eort was OUTSTANDING. “ The following Chapters have people that signed the virtual peon: • Burlington Camden - 478 • Stockbridge Jonesboro - 302 • Washington, DC - 253 • West Palm Beach - 247 • Mobile - 234 Even though the Mobile Alumni Chapter Guide Right parcipants did not meet face to face, the Mobile Alumni chapter was able to support the 110. young men whom are served in our Kappa Knight (7th & 8th graders) and Kappa League programs. As a result of the virtual en-gagement from the Naonal Guide Right Commission and the Mobile Alumni Chapter Guide Right Commiee, the majority of our parci-pants excelled. The Kappa Knight membership stayed at 20 young men and the Mobile Kappa League program sustained a membership of 90 young men. Lastly, the Mobile Kappa League moo is "A Kut Above." The young men truly have been "A Kut Above" during the pandemic.
13 Samuel Boyd III, Corey Harris, and Terry Ward Jeerson City (MO) Alumni Chapter Mobile (AL) Alumni Chapter Montgomery (AL) Alumni Chapter Petersburg (VA) Alumni Chapter Philadelphia (PA) Alumni Chapter Sacramento (CA) Alumni Chapter San Fernando—Santa Clarita (CA) Alumni Chapter Seale (WA) Alumni Chapter Southeld (MI) Alumni Chapter St. Louis (MO) Alumni Chapter