Alliance of Concerned Men

 

In order to acquaint my readers with the wide variety of organizations working to make a difference in the lives of young males and their communities, I want to introduce the Alliance of Concerned Men (ACM). ACM is a nonprofit organization with the goal of saving lives of at risk youth in the high crime areas of the Washington DC metropolitan community. They are doing creative, and in my eyes, heroic work. 

The ACM mission is to ". . . contain and prevent the cycle of violence, by building concentric cycles of care, support, and intervention . . ., " using a core set of values that include Love, Faith, Peace and Service. Beautiful. If you are tired of hearing about all the downside news of violence in your community, check out just a few of ACM's inspired programs: 

A Gang Prevention and Outreach Program, the builds on collaboration with the police, various city agencies, community leaders, as well as the parents and neighbors of the youth involved. They call this, building concentric cycles of care, support, and intervention.

Their Fatherhood Initiative, that includes helping incarcerated fathers to connect with their children on the outside, and mentoring services for their families. 

A very innovative program called The Prison Adopt-a-Block Program. In this initiative, ACM works with inmates who have the potential for becoming transformational leaders, and is built on the following, solid concepts: Their children, families and communities on the outside are hungering for the very commodity they represent—positive male leadership. The fact that many ex-offenders wish to “give something back” to the communities they once harmed, and their ex-offender status gives credibility and authority on the streets that neither law enforcement nor other “mentors” can hope to achieve.

In addition to the above, they have individual programs for identified very high risk kids, and even an in-school program to . . .  assist students in their educational endeavors of earning a high school diploma or GED and prepare students for college, technical and or trade schools.

Here is what Eric Holder, US Attorney General has to say about ACM:  I have great respect for the Alliance. I’ve seen the miracle they’ve brought. It needs to be duplicated. It can work in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and any other community in America with similar problems.

To learn more about this group bringing hope to incarcerated parents, their kids and families, reducing the cycles of violence in their community, and helping low income kids meet their educational objectives, check out the ACM website. Knowing these dedicated brothers and sisters in mission are doing their very good work gives me hope for a better world.

PS: The ACM headquarters burned down just after Xmas putting a serious dent into their abilities to provide services. If you want to support their work, you can contact them or make a donation on their site.