A book about a very P3 journey

P3 The Journey

Chapter 1

Positive Pathways Program

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. - Henry Ford

I don’t know about you but something happened on February 26th in the Positive Pathways Program. I felt a wind a shift and it was probably a monumental shift that occurred most likely, only in my mind.

That day was not a typical P3 day, it was a special day. On that day the youth, staff and mentors were treated to a motivational message by University of Alabama and NFL Star Bobby Hum-phrey. One of our young men won the raffle and a ball signed by the football legend, but we all felt like winners. After the speech by Humphrey, P3 headed over to Pizza Hut to eat and chat. The discussion turned to coaches, and staff that changed their life and how to recruit more participants.

Before heading to the High School championships where a local team was playing at the BJCC, we made a quick dip to Miles Col-lege football program to appeal to the coaches to help identify mentors. When we got to the BJCC, we ran into Councillor Ste-ven Hoyt and Department of Youth Services director Cedric Sparks and his mentoring staff. Three of the youth on the P3 advi-sory committee headed across the street with me (Dr. Agee) to the AME church office. We dropped in on Bishop James Davis (pictured here) the presiding Bishop over the entire Ninth Episco-pal district of the AME church. One of the participants said that Bishop Davis treated them like they were actually important. I confirmed to him that’s because, the P3 youth ARE important.

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Section 1

Very Important People

If you are reading this on your iPad turn it side-

ways (landscape) for best view)

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Section 2

What we learnedEpiphanies on how thinking like a kid might just be the thing to do.

Epiphanies

When I looked around I noticed a few things. That staff were interacting, the youth were smiling and there was some positive feelings in the air. I think the motivational speaker started us off right.

We went to a basketball game and Pizza Hut and a few of the participants on our advisory committee rode with me to a few stops that I needed to make as director.

Here is a theory I developed on Contact, Commitment, Engagement and Connection.

Every moment provides us with an opportu-nity to connect or make contact. Another mo-ment could provide us an opportunity to en-gage, either the youth or each other. But the underlying energy that fuels all three is com-mitment.

Each of us, has our own way of expressing our commitment to our job. And by job, I mean a multitude of things. A job is at once an assignment, a set of responsibilities and a role. But a job can also be a calling and the expression of a vision towards a goal. Sometimes P3 feels like a job and sometimes it feels like some-thing more than just a gig.

When it’s more than just a gig I have noticed the following:

High engagement can happen with youth, staff or our partners. High engagement at a speaking event would be if one of our P3 elements (mentor, staff, coach, other participant, program man-

ager) encourages another person to come to an event to meet them there.

High contact can happen when we log hours or moments of con-tact with our participants, staff, partners, mentors or other stake-holders. Traditionally, we think of contact with the P3 partici-pants as most important and clearly it is key. However, high con-tact with our team is equally as important, especially if that con-tact is productive, positive and while we are at it, it doesn’t hurt if it’s fun!

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Pictured here are youth, staff, mentors and P3 coaches at the JCCEO Kingston facility

P3 Engagement: With football star Bobby Humphrey

High connection means that you are literally connecting with an-other part of the P3 program. All of these elements are impor-tant but creating that connection will increase future contact and will foster a sense of engagement. And more than that a high connection has a redoubling effect on commitment. Every single person involved in P3 wants to see this program succeed. When we see those glimmers of hope that success is possible, that’s the energy we need to keep moving forward.

I have some suggestions on how to increase our contact, connec-tions and engagements just based off of what I see that naturally

happens. Some of this may be counter intuitive to what we think about should happen in a work environment. So stick with me on this...

What High Engagement looks like in P3:

• We go to sporting events in the middle of a workday. A sporting event is a great time to connect with partners, participants and other staff.

• Mentors and coaches will turn a fun activity like a basketball game into a high engagement event by sitting with one of the participants.

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Pictured here are some of our mentors (Alexa is in white and Aramis is holding the envelope) with staff participants and Congresswoman Terri Sewell at a summer job fair.

Job Fair

• Administrative staff and partners can turn a basketball game into a high connection event by inviting a potential mentor to come or introducing youth to other people while at the event.

• We think like a kid

• The other day I was going to take one of the youth to lunch to cele-brate that his ankle monitor came off. He suggested McDonald’s. But two of other the other youth said a special event deserved a ‘better’ option. The final selection was double whoppers with cheese that we got in Burger King drive through.

• High connections don't have to come through my staff. Our great-est recruiters and connectors are youth in the program. Think about it, if you have ever been in a student group, choir or frat, who gets the group together the advisor or the other youth? It’s the youth, hands down.

• We like to plan, have schedules and prepare everything to a tee...or sometimes we scrap the plan and go with what works.

It truly takes a village

When I asked one of the participants who she remembered most about the summer before being in P3 she started her list with two of my staff

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In 2012, Birmingham P3 had the highest number of community service hours thanks to partnerships with Birmingham Councillor Jay Roberson (Ms. Watkins our summer driver is in the skirt and Niva Roberson our Education manager has on blue).

High Engagement

that don’t even work for P3. By being the van driver and saying comforting words to the youth, many who had never worked before, people like Imo-gene Watkins from JCCEO provided high engagement with the youth every day during the summer program.

Another participant said that he was in detention with a bad attitude but he started to change his mind about his life because P3 staff kept coming every week with our partners Futures Inc. When the young man was re-leased Mr. Underwood’s (a P3 coach) business card was all he had in his hand. He said the card was the only thing he held on to for the entire 2 months he was incarcerated. He enrolled in the program the day after he got out.

We are more than numbers, we change lives. Everyday. When I met Ashar, it was over the phone. I was sitting at my desk and she called and said, I want to go back to school. From time to time Ashar would call me, and we would talk. This is before P3 even started. Ashar’s success, much like my own, is not a linear meteoric rise to the top. She faced a lot of obsta-cles and changed her attitude about life. While we watched that change, we know that progress is a journey not a destination. Having a mentee in the program actually gives me the fuel I need to keep going when I get physically tired (I’m old ya’ll) and when I worry if what we are doing will work.

We are learning and growing every day. The more we seek to actively en-gage the youth and support each other along the way, the more successful we will be. There is a popular line in the movie “The Matrix” where Neo learns to change the world around him by a shift in perception. He went from understanding the world as it is to creating a whole new world by shifting the way he sees things. If you are still reading this book, then you are probably on board with the thought that we are not only destined to succeed with P3. If you think about the lives that have been touched al-ready, including our youth, staff and partners, we are already a success

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Me (Dr. Jarralynne Agee) with P3 participant and my very own-mentee, Ashar

Success is a journey....

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P3 mentor Robert Agee provided the funds for lunch all summer and Councilor Jay Roberson engaged the youth in summer com-munity service activities and fall non-violence projects.

Pictures of our youth

Youth at their summer jobs.

Gallery 1.1 Pictures from Summer 2012

story

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Judge Nyya Parson Hudson a P3 early adopter and supporter and Mentor Jose Perry from the City of Birmingham engage the P3 youth in the summer program.

P3 connects

Raven and Dima were interns working in City Hall this summer

P3 in the city