CINCINNATI — An after-school mentoring program at Fairview-Clifton German Language School in Cincinnati is using Black history to help troubled kids.
A few of the grade schoolers who are a part of the M.O.R.E program say they have big dreams.
“I wanna be an NFL player,” said fifth grader Eric Cody Jr.
“I wanna go to the NFL, but if not, then a lawyer,” said fifth grader Joseph Dorsey.
“I wanna be a singer,” said sixth grader Baylen Sofranec Smith.
But their troubles at school almost got in the way.
“I was hanging out with the wrong people, and they were trying to get me to do something that would get me in trouble,” said Smith.
It’s part of the reason they became a part of an after-school mentoring program called M.O.R.E.
“M.O.R.E. stands for Men, Organized, Respectful and Educated. so we tend to focus on all of those things,” said John Forde, M.O.R.E. adviser and mentor.
Forde helped get the program started.
“When I was younger, I didn’t see a lot of role models and people that look like me or talk like me or dress like me and positions that I wanted to aspire to be,” said Forde.
That’s why he said they’re focusing on getting young Black students to be a part of the program.
“It’s not a secret that our young minority males were performing at a lower level historically and coming up, so there’s been changes made to rectify that, and so our young men need young male role models,” said Forde.
He said through the mentoring program kids learn about Black history, how people from the past got through their struggles, and ways they can get through them, too.
There are about 20 kids who are a part of the program at the school, and so far, students said it’s working.
“They inspire us,” said Dorsey.
“They always teach us how to do the right things,” said Sofranec Smith
“If this never happened, it probably would’ve been a whole different story about us,” said Cody Jr.
The M.O.R.E program is in multiple Cincinnati schools, along with the Girls to Women after-school program for at-risk girls.
