WHERE MY SOLDIERS AT?
THE S.O.L.D.I.E.R.S. CLUB is a high school intervention and mentoring program developed by Mrs. Burney to decrease the student drop out rate and youth violence crisis through literacy and leadership development. The program is currently active at three of Jacksonville’s historic, yet challenged high schools currently in jeopardy of closing their doors due to a failure to meet statewide test standards. The part in-school/after school program empowers young men with strategies that build and reinforce academic excellence, mentorship and community service.
Administrators of the New Town Success Zone Initiative, JCC’s Family Involvement (FI) staff members, recently engaged and interviewed approximately 500 New Town residents. They were assisted by 10 William M. Raines High School students, also known as SOLDIERS. The SOLDIERS were inspired by Duval County School Board Member Betty Burney, District 5, to serve as leaders on their school campus and within their surrounding community.
Interviews and focus groups with New Town residents are designed to learn more about the needs of families. FI staff members were paired with Raines SOLDIERS. They were charged with talking with residents at their homes, visit barber/ beauty shops, and go to places of worship.
Following the community engagement process, JCC will worked with other funding organizations and non-profit providers to intentionally link services that insulate families living in the New Town neighborhood (i.e., Census Tract 28.02). Services are offered to families from the time a child is conceived until they complete college and/or enter the workforce.
If you are interested signing up a young male age 14-18 that is currently enrolled in high school and on the verge of failing or at-risk of drop out, please complete the form below and one of our representatives will be in contact with you.
TURNING LIVES AROUND
This city needs every mentoring program it can get, especially programs that can be expected to directly affect Jacksonville’s high murder rate.
That is why state Sen. Tony Hill and School Board member Betty Burney are proposing a mentoring program that targets young black males, a group in this city that can be described as in a crisis.
Statistics don’t lie:
- High school graduation rates for African-Americans in Duval County are at 54 percent.
- Dropout rates for blacks in Jacksonville are almost double the state average (7.3 percent here vs. 4.1 percent in the state.)
Hill would like Jacksonville to model a mentoring program after 5000 Role Models of Excellence, begun in Miami-Dade County. Its motto is “Men guiding boys to manhood.”
More than 6,500 mentors, mostly African-American, have joined as mentors since it was started in 1993 at the urging of Frederica Wilson, then a member of the Miami-Dade School Board, now a member of the Florida Senate.
Betty Seabrook Burney represents District 5 and joined the Duval County School Board in November 2004. She is a Raines High School graduate, holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Northern Illinois University. Currently, Ms. Burney is an education consultant for TPG, Inc., and Seabrook and Associates. She is a member of the NAACP Education Committee, Wayman Chapel AME Church and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. 
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