Philadelphia’s Rearing Successful Sons will be hosting their first public fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 8. They have worked in Point Breeze holding community meetings and finding solutions for various community issues over the last year.
The group got its start when the Presbyterian Community Ministries of Delaware Valley (PCMDV) assembled a broad, multiracial coalition. This was done to form connections within the community for young people, who happen to be disproportionately African American.
The result, which PCMDV sponsors, is Rearing Successful Sons, which aims to serve African American youth ages 9 to 17. Youth are connected with successful professionals in Philadelphia, who invest and engage in young people to prepare them for success.
Now, they will host “An Afternoon of Music,” beginning at 3 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at First District Plaza, 3801 Market Street. The featured performers for the afternoon include Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts’ own RSS Drummers and Drummers with An Attitude. The Honorary Chair for the event will be none other than Rev. Lorina Marshall Blake, president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation.
Rearing Successful Sons pride themselves on forming human connections and building resilience through those connections, said Delores Brisbon, the retired Chief Operating Officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She was the first African-American ever appointed to that position.
“We embrace a truth that one loving adult in the life of a child can make a difference,” Brisbon told The Philadelphia Sunday Sun.
The organization’s program is modeled after a book called, “REACHING TEENS: Strength Based Communication Strategies To Build Resilience and Support Healthy Adolescent Development,” edited by Kenneth R. Ginsburg, M.D., FAAP, FSAHM and Sara B. Kinsman, M.D., Ph.D., pediatricians in the Department of Adolescent Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. It is a science-based program which uses connection in order to foster the seven C’s for young men: confidence, competence, connection, contribution, coping, character, and control.
Currently one in every four people in Philadelphia ages 18 to 24 are not connected to the city’s labor market. They are out of both school and work, said a study from Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy published in September.
Area employers need the resources that come with having youth in their cities to recruit employees from. Companies like IT staffing firms, for instance, are becoming more relied on since they can find entry-level jobs for those with no experience required thanks to the contacts and connections that IT companies themselves don’t have.
Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rate, though lower than it was a few years ago, is currently hovering around 5%. Yet the jobless rate for black men is more than double that, standing at 11% for those over 20 years old.
All proceeds from the event will benefit Rearing Successful Sons. Tickets for the event are $10 each and can be purchased by calling 215-389-5504.