Books & Basketball is a mentoring program that provides teenage men of color with positive role models, shared knowledge gained through academic and corporate experience, and raised awareness and support in their personal development in the Twin Cities.
The program utilizes a two-fold approach that reaches out to youth through the incentive of basketball and then leverages the academic and corporate experience of minority professional men to support youth in their transition into young men.
The mission of the program is fulfilled through a dynamic set of sessions organized around the following themes:
- Building a Solid Foundation: You, Your Friends, and Your Family
- School, Work, and Money: Utilizing Your Resources
- The Real Deal: Girls, Sex, and Responsibility
- Dreams and Aspirations: Making it Happen
- Redefined Manhood: Don’t Believe the Hype
- Winning at Your Life: Setting Sail
Engaging conversations paired with life lessons create transformative experiences with positive adult influences, develop the youth into thoughtful, community minded adults, display positive images of confidence, etiquette, and individuality, and provide the youth with a greater understanding of how to carry themselves in an appropriate manner.
Books and Basketball is open to students in 8th to 12th grade from local schools and existing community organizations in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul community (Young Life, Minneapolis College Prep, Hope Academy, Beyond the Court).
