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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Alchemy, Inc.,
Year the initative began (yyyy) 2004
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. A process rooted in mentoring and the discussion and interpretation of mythological stories, with a focus on urban adolescent males realizing their gifts and reaching
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? We have created a culture that is caring, trusting and safe for urban youth to discuss issues related to their stage of development. The uniqueness of utilizing myth with urban youth as a method to engage them, which in turn, gives them a voice, allowing them to recognize their genius within. The experience, sincerity, quality and dedication of our staff.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work? Our work is organized around the premise that, with appropriate modeling from caring, responsible adults, urban youth can meet and exceed their aspirations. Our work is designed to assist youth in recalling their purpose in life, as well as learn how to constructively function as members of a family, school, community and world at large. Our focus is changing the mindset of urban youth to begin to establish long-term goals. We accomplish this through the telling, discussion and interpretation of mythological stories and fairy tales. Our curriculum consists of myths designed to provide the youth with opportunities to discuss issues pertinent to their stage of development. We use myths that speak to common dilemmas adolescents face and discuss how these scenarios mirror their lives. The youths journal, discuss the issues and interpret these scenarios within a safe group environment. We look for common themes in the various myths and identify the character traits of the hero. Some common traits include sacrifice, perseverance, critical thinking and decision-making based on long-term results. In addition to support groups we offer a summer camp, math, reading, writing sessions and African
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? In myth the hero utilizes his resources. We plan to partner with organizations, schools and universities which espouse a philosophy similar to ours which sincerely believes in our youth to reach their potential. We are currently developing a business plan which will include our directives from Ashoka which are:
1. Figure out ways to position our program for spread of the idea of utilizing myth 2. Develop a complete business plan of how to scale this product which would 3. Develop performance measures that are more about his program's true purpose. Our impressive success in raising academic performance is a secondary benefit, not the main objective of his work. 4. Acquire a What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? School systems, institutions of higher learning, pubic policy makers, national foundations and corporations are resources we will target.
In regards to policy needs contemporary traditional approach to public education is not working for urban male youth. Educational institutions need to include policies accepting to non-traditional approaches to working with urban adolescent males. We want to develop a cultural assessment tool to use with organizations who express an interest in our work to help us determine if their culture will support our work. We want to develop a curriculum guide for our work and create an affiliate and certification process. Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. The program is succeeding at positively impacting students’ long-term goals, self-control, decision-making and relationships while increasing their desire to work harder, attend school and improve performance on standardized math and reading tests.
What impact has your work achieved to date? This field has not been completed
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? Alchemy utilizes external sources of evaluation which include both quantitative and qualitative data. Akron Public Schools, Kent State University College and Graduate School of Education provide data to determine our program’s affects on academics, behavior and attendance. The National Research Center provides qualitative evaluation data to ascertain positive youth development outcomes of being involved in our program. In addition we use internal evaluations to ascertain the youth’s ability to transfer the knowledge gained from the discussions of myth into their everyday lives along with ideas for possible changes. Ongoing internal evaluations of our facilitators and content are inherent in our design in order to remain abreast of our goals, reinforcing or intensifying our present goals and/or methodology.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? Robert A. Kutz Foundation $55,000 – committed
City of Akron $15,000 – committed Akron Community Foundation $15,000 – committed Akron Community Foundation NPP $ 5,000 – committed Akron Public Schools $ 5,000 – committed Individual Donations $ 7,000 - committed We are in the planning stages of developing a scale-up model which will target national foundations. We plan to develop a curriculum that will generate income along with a fee for consulting and workshops and facilitation of support groups. We will present at national conferences with a target market of school superintendents in urban districts. Provide information on your current finances and organization: • Annual budget: (with drop down menu allowing them to select denomination and then we convert anything not in US$ to include it as a 2nd number)
$265,000 (optimal) • Annual revenue $102,000 ($13,500 pending) currently continuing plan development to reach this goal • Sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known) Foundations Government Funding (State and Local) Corporate Contributions Individual Contributions Consulting Fees • Number of staff (3 boxes: full-time, part-time, volunteers): 1 Full Time 1 Part Time 8 Contracted Staff 6 Volunteers Who are your potential partners and allies? The following are all associated with the study of myth and are certain allies: Mosaic Cultural Foundations, Seattle, WA; Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA; Jung Centers across the country; Foundation for Mythological Studies; Joseph Campbell Foundation; Mythic Imagination Institute; Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture; Ashe Cultural Center, Cleveland, OH.
We presently have additional support from Ashoka as our founder is an Ashoka affiliate as of September 2007 and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. We believe we will also be able to garner support from NABSE (National Association of Black Who are your potential investors? Local investors include: GAR Foundation, Akron Community Foundation, City of Akron, Demetros Charitable Trust, Corbin Foundation, Kutz Foundation, and Children’s Family Care.
On a national scale, any person, organization or government agency who benefits from a program that can educate urban adolescent youth and create caring, responsible, self-sufficient adult leaders (in process of targeting specific national foundations). What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. The idea for Alchemy was born several years ago when I was working as a counselor for The University of Akron. I used to counsel adolescent youth and found it difficult to get them to disclose pertinent information. I was introduced to the use of mythology by reading the book, Men and the Water of Life by Michael Meade in which he utilized myth to get messages across. At this point I said to myself: “This is the ticket!” I was born during the late 50’s and my first images of childhood were seeing Negroes being beaten by the police, attacked by dogs and water hoses sprayed on them. As a child I could not understand this. Practically all of the images of Blacks I saw on television were negative and I started to internalize this negative image of blackness. This wound of self-hate and inferiority would be my driving force to work with youth whom for whatever reasons also experienced forms of self-hate.
I started working at the age of 16 and worked my way through school obtaining two masters degrees. I’ve had four major transitions or core moments in my life. The first was when I started to read around the age of 30! The second was being introduced to the Akan System of Life Cycle Development (African rites of passage) of which I was formally initiated in 1993. The third core moment was traveling across the country once a month from Akron, Ohio to Santa Barbara, California to obtain my masters in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute and the other core moment was starting the Alchemy program. In choosing to attend Pacifica and starting Alchemy, Inc. I had to withstand a number of financial struggles and defend the irrational aspect of choosing the field of myth as an area of academic study and starting a program based upon such. I left a corporate job at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company after 15 years of service and the University of Akron after five years to follow my dream of working with youth utilizing mythological stories. I lived off my credit cards for nine months creating Alchemy, Inc. What this experience did for me was allowed me to actually live the myth, incorporating the character traits of the hero such as sacrifice, perseverance and faith. In overcoming various obstacles I can speak sincerely from experience when working with the youth as I have walked the talk. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. Kwame is founder and Executive Director of Alchemy, Inc., a non-profit organization located in Akron, Ohio. He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Mythological Studies with degree specialization in Jungian Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California where he is presently a doctoral candidate. He was formally initiated into the Akan System of Life Cycle Development (rites of passage) in May of 1993. He has conducted numerous support groups with adolescent youth and facilitated various staff in-services in Northeast Ohio.
Contact Information:
Kwame Scruggs
founder/director Alchemy, Inc., (citizen sector organization) Discussions about this entry |
Extracting the Gold Inherent in our Youth, Having them Become the Heroes Within Their Own Stories
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Hello Mr. Scruggs!
I am EXTREMELY interested in this work that you are doing around the use of mythological stories in the development of young men and boys! This IS VERY innovative! You mention that you are interested in developing a curriculum and we, at Life Pieces To Masterpieces ( go to www.lifepieces.org for more info.) have also been engaged in capturing and recording our "recipe" for healthy, happy, peaceful young men who promote positive change in their community and ultimately the world.
We do use storytelling, however not mythology. I REALLY find this interesting and would welcome a dialogue about the possibility of us engaging in an exchange.
Congratulations on your work and thank you sooooo MUCH for this innovation.
Peace
Mary Brown
Life Pieces To Masterpieces, Inc.
Hello Mary,
First off, thank you for your comments and interest in our work. l visited your website and had to hold back tears, thank you for the sacrifices you are making for our youth. I am going to email you so we can continue this dialogue, thanks again!
kwame
Dear Kwame,
Your use of mythological stories as an educational and personal growth tool is truly unique. Your entry is very clear and easy to understand. Thank you for taking the time to explain your story and the origin of Alchemy. It is a great story! Could you give an example of a mythological story that you frequently use to provoke and engage youth? How could you develop Alchemy to reach more students? Thanks again for your great entry and for all your great work.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
The Half Boy
A boy is born with only the right half of his body. Of course he is unhappy and feels desperately incomplete. He becomes a constant source of irritation, embarrassment, and confusion for his family and the entire village. Nevertheless he grows. That is to say, the half of him that can be seen grows. Eventually, he reaches the age of adolescence and puberty. His half ness and incompleteness become unbearable to him. His pain grows more evident and more troublesome to everyone around him.
One day he leaves the village, dragging himself along, the way a half a person drags himself through life. He drags along until he reaches a place where the road crosses a river. At that crossroad, he meets another youth who exists as only the left half, the other half of a person. Immediately, they move towards each other as if fated to join together. Surprisingly, when they reach each other, they begin to fight and roll in the dust. Eventually, they fall into the river. After a time, from the river there arises an entire youth with the sides together. Because he has been in the river and in a great struggle, he feels disoriented and doesn’t know where he stands. Then, the new youth begins to walk towards a village that he sees before him.
As he enters the village, he sees an old man and asks: “Can you tell me where I am? I have been struggling and don’t know where I have arrived at.” The old man says: “You have arrived home. You are back in the village where you were born. Now that you have returned whole, everyone can begin the dance and celebration.” A great dance and feast begins. Everyone in the village joins the dance, especially the Half-boy become whole.
Mahdi, Louise, Carus, Nancy Geyer Christopher and Michael Meade, eds. Pg. xxi. Crossroads:
The Quest for Contemporary Rites of Passage. Chicago: Open Court, 1996.
Discussion
1. What part of the story resonated (stood out) with you?
2. What do you think about when you think about being half?
3. How does this relate to you?
4. How do you feel only ½ of the person you think you should be?
5. What is it telling us that even though he is half still that part of him grows? How does this relate to you?
6. What do you think about him being kicked-out of the village? How does this relate to you?
7. What do you think he is thinking while walking down this long road?
8. What do you think about the crossroads and where he meets the other youth?
9. Why do you think they fought when it was obvious that they should be together?
10. How does this relate to you?
11. Who are you fighting against when you should be working together?
12. What do you think the story is telling us about them becoming whole after a
struggle? How does this relate to you?
13. Since he was in a struggle he felt tired, confused, do you feel this way or different?
14. What do you think about the old man?
15. What do you think about the village welcoming him back?
16. What did you learn from the story?
Various ways for us to reach more students include developing a curriculum; adding myths and discussion questions to our website; contacting organizations, K through high schools interested in our idea of utilizing myth; presenting at national conferences, i.e., NABSE (National Association of Black School Educators); developing a training program for people interested in our idea.
Locally we plan to spread our idea to four elementary schools utilizing our 9th grade as mentors, assisting 48 (12 per school) 5th grade youth in their transitions to middle school. The 9th grade youth will teach them through drumming and myths.