EMBRACE

___________________________________

“Racial Harmony and Equality” SHEP-TY Inc.

  Embrace is a Diversity Program.  Its purpose is to deliver diversity programs to High School and college students in leadership roles or programs.  They invite 3-4 kids from each High School who have a 2.8 GPA or greater and is a member of or associated with student government.  Each program features 12 professional athletes and celebrities along with a police department.

  Team sports are a natural advocate for diversity.  On a team the stated purpose is to win.  Race is not an issue.  Everyone works together and needs each other to win.  Considering this, we have to question why we can’t take this lead as adults in race relations? Another place that race doesn’t matter is in the field of entertainment.  It takes a diverse group to put together something for the public as a whole.  The diversity and unity of this group is what makes it strong.  Police play an important role in our program because there is a break down in our youth and community towards police.  There is a strong need to build relationships with youth and law enforcement.  Hate crimes are on the rise and this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

  In our program, college students are trained as mentors for the high school students.  Our purpose is to raise awareness of diversity, and develop diversity pep rallies, book clubs, etc.  Our ultimate purpose is to create an environment where we can learn about each other from each other.
Fox New 6 has stepped up to launch a one hour long documentary on our workshop and post workshop experiences.  In addition, Fox 6 News’ Cheri Olsen is creating a person of color internship program. She desires to take advantage of the diversity group and their accomplishments.  She believes that student leaders who are on their way to being our next generation of employers or employees need diversity training to succeed.

  Embrace creates an environment in which students can spend time together and work out their differences; thereby creating an understanding of various cultures. The practice of cronyism and nepotism may always exist. However, by the time these kids are in the position to hire someone, they will hopefully develop a diverse group of friends and associates that will bring harmony in the diversity of relations.

  At the Cleamons Camp the sessions will consist of discussions on stereotyping, peer and parental pressures, dating or having friends outside of your race, and expressions of feelings about other races.  We will validate the kid’s feelings and then explain where those feeling may have come from.  We will then discuss how to deal with issues and move forward. In addition, the kids will learn how others feel when racism occurs.  This allows students to ask questions and build an understanding of how others feel about racism, what is hurtful, and how to make things better.

  Embrace got involved with Samaritan because they saw Samaritan’s vision was a perfect fit for what they were doing. Embrace would love to see an organization like the Lakers take custody of the program in LA.  We envision the motto “Purple and Gold: The only colors that should matter”.