“When we talk about the gap of learning in our children, it really isn’t intelligence– it’s experience,” Ed Boyd, founder of Connect the Dots Consulting shared.
Connect the Dots Consulting works with Results Mentoring -- an organization that focuses on redirecting student behaviors using mentoring, physical training, and tutoring programs -- to provide trips to young men who live in the Detroit metropolitan area. It encourages them to look beyond the place they live, and to observe the opportunities that are available to them in other places. The idea is that if they see more, they can do more.
Prior to a two-year Covid hiatus, the organization has conducted four trips over a five-day period to Washington DC and New York City. From Monday to Friday in early August, forty teenage boys and ten chaperones visit museums, a network television station, black owned companies, and go to a baseball game. At least 90% of the young men who go on the trips have never been outside of the metro Detroit area. Plans are in the works for an August trip this summer.
The participants are referred by like-minded people at area schools and churches. These same people will then mentor the attendees through their programs. Getting
one outside of their neighborhood allows them to actually see themselves in these new environments. The trip is an incredible bonding experience for all involved. The bus on Monday morning is very quiet but the bus returning on Friday is “on fire” with excited talk and new friendships.
It costs around $1,000 per attendee and the organization makes it free for each. The hope is to expand the program to multiple trips each year and to provide one for teenage girls.
To donate, please go to www.resultsmentoring.org.