Alpha Phi Alpha Programs:
PROJECT ALPHA: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation began collaboratively implementing Project Alpha in 1980. This collaborative project is designed to provide education, motivation and skill-building on issues of responsibility, relationships, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases for young males ages 12-15 years. Designed to provide young men with current and accurate information about teen pregnancy prevention, Project Alpha consists of a series of workshops and informational sessions conducted by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers.
The three goals of Project Alpha programs are:
- Sharing Knowledge by combating ignorance and fear with factual information.
- Changing Attitudes by providing motivation toward positive changes in sexual behavior.
- Providing Skills by creating a sense of empowerment and self-esteem.
Project Alpha week, which started in 2000, targets the second week of October every year. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. chapters all across the country execute the program with their local March of Dimes to implement Project Alpha programs.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
- Provides education for young males 12-15 years old on sexuality, fatherhood and the role of males in relationships.
- Motivates young men to make decisions about their goals and values, and act in ways that support their decisions.
- Builds young men's skills through role-playing. Utilizes appropriate male role models and mentors.
A. CHARLES HASTON BROTHER'S KEEPER: Brother's Keeper is a service program developed with the mission of advocating and improving the quality of life for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. brothers, their spouses, and widows who are retired, are elders, have disabilities and are ailing. Upon identification of need, the Brother's Keeper Program also provides assistance to mature and ailing members of its communities. Limitations caused by advanced age place demands on family members, caregivers, and the larger community to ensure that elders remain independently functional. The goal of the Brother's Keeper Program is to promote dignity and independence among Alpha family and community members who need help in keeping their lives and homes functional. There are seven objectives to the program:
Objective 1: Assist in maintaining living environments that are compatible with participants’ levels of functioning
Objective 2: Assist in maintaining the upkeep of participants’ properties
Objective 3: Assist with health care decision-making
Objective 4: Provide companionship
Objective 5: Provide legal services
Objective 6: Provide transportation
Objective 7: Ensure adequate supplies of food, water, and clothing, with special emphasis on disaster management and recovery.
What is Alpha Phi Alpha and what does it means to me?
The question prompted such a multi-faceted response that I had to offer my apology to the questioner as I started and stopped and started again to capture the entirety of my thoughts.
Every Alpha Man will understand and be able to relate to precisely the conundrum this presents.
The best way to start is to share the mission of Alpha: “Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities.”
With that mission statement as a backdrop, it's appropriate to say that much of what Alpha IS is really about is what Alpha DOES, and it is what Alpha DOES that matters most. It's about the work being done my brothers in college and alumni chapters all across the globe.
For our part in DeKalb County, where the Nu Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha is seated, it is about the very specific and intentional work we are doing all year long.
It’s about the nearly 100 young men in grades 4-12 that we mentor as part of our DeKalb Alphas Mentoring Initiative in more than 70 group mentoring sessions a year visiting topics ranging from dressing for success, to financial literacy, and from PSAT Prep to college tours.
It’s about registering voters, including 133 seniors in DeKalb County high schools during the month of October alone.
It’s about greeting local elementary school students at 7 a.m. in the morning with handshakes, high fives, hugs, and words of encouragement as they begin their day.
It’s about providing scholarships to graduating seniors who are part of our Mentoring Initiative.
It’s about helping to feed and clothe the homeless.
It’s about conducting public seminars for non-custodial fathers.
It should also be said that the very essence of what it means to be an Alpha requires every Alpha Man to be mindful to focus on using language that represents not first person singular (I, me, my, mine), but rather first person plural (we, us, ours) language.
The reason is simple: Alpha’s core strength lies in its bond of Brotherhood.
Brotherhood for Alphas is the well-spring from which we draw the strength to do execute our mission while simultaneously being strong men for our families and meaningful contributors to society.
This same sense of brotherhood that strengthened our visionary founders more than a century ago fuels every Alpha man today.
Brotherhood does not presume that there is singularity of opinions or thought; some of the most vigorous debates I’ve been part of have been with my brothers. It is, though, this sense of brotherhood that allows us, even given our often significantly disparate positions, to part ways as friends.
It is an unfortunate truth that the works of Alpha by chapters like ours, and many others, goes largely unreported.
Perhaps it is because we don’t produce press releases and send up social media flares heralding and touting the work that we do. Perhaps it is because what we do is news that is not seen as sensational enough to help sell ad space or commercial time.
The fact is that it really matters not. It matters not because Alpha men do this work not for acclaim or glory, but because it is what we are called to do.
So the teary eyes of a mother who tells us that we changed her son’s life is good enough. A non-custodial father who tells us that he is going to double his efforts to connect with his children is enough. The high school senior who beams with pride because she has just become a registered voter is enough. The man who lives on the street who is given some semblance of hope because he knows he has not been forgotten about is enough.
These confirmations are enough to the Alpha Man because we know that for more than 109 years, we have changed our world one child, one parent, one school, one voter, one community, one court case, one piece of legislation, one life at a time.
The reason is simple: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for our communities. That is who Alpha is. That is what Alpha does.
Greg Gray is the president of the Nu Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (The DeKalb Alphas). He is a Spring 2011 initiate into the fraternity. For more information about the DeKalb Alphas visit their website at dekalblphas.org
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