3 times as many families as when it launched
Program now serving
3 times as many families as when it launched
BY SANDI CARPELLO
Staff Writer
RED BANK — As they struggle to support their families, many dads in the borough’s African-American and Latino communities have had less than adequate time for their kids.
So the Red Bank Regional Source Foundation, in conjunction with the YMCA Count Basie Achievement Branch, has sponsored the "Rites of Passage" a ten-week interactive forum that guides and educates minority parents to nurture and empower their adolescent child.
Funded by a $32,000 Department of Health and Human Services Grant, the "Rites of Passage" focuses on teen-related issues including substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, goal setting, peer pressure, and the exploration of African American and Latino history.
While the parents partake in those subject forums, their kids gather in a classroom of the Count Basie Achievement Branch for a curriculum driven workshop designed to develop character and introspective exploration through both writing and visual art.
Families who successfully complete the program are rewarded with a free one-year membership to the Red Bank Community YMCA.
"When they leave here the [parents] feel better about themselves because they know other families are going through the same thing," said Katrina Parrish, a program director with the Count Basie Achievement Branch. "They come in here, talk, eat a dinner we provide them, and at the end of the day they know things are going to be okay and everything is good."
According to Sean Macon, a social worker with the Source Foundation who monitors the one-hour weekly workshops, the two-year-old program has grown from eight to roughly 25 people .
"From last year to this year, we’ve definitely had more participants," Macon said. "Four families who were in the program last year came back, so we feel like we’re doing something right."
The program, which was originally designed for African-American males and their children, has come to include single-mothers as well.
After publicizing the program, sending out mass mailings, and speaking at borough churches, "some mothers came in here and said we’d like to do this, but there are no men in our lives. So we let them join and so far it’s been working out just fine."
Rattan Vann, a sixth-grader at the Red Bank Middle School whose father works as a full-time cook, said he loves the program.
"It’s cool because I get to spend time with my dad," he said. "And I also get to learn how to express myself."
The Source Foundation plans to hold a similar program for Latino families in the spring.