Free Minds Book Club member calls the BRP “some real-life stuff”

Below is a testimonial letter that I am proud to share because it shows the Born Ready Project’s potential to help change lives in a positive way.

Dave

Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, a non-profit in Washington DC that uses books and creative written expression to empower incarcerated youth at the DC jail, was privileged to have Dave Ungrady, author of the book “Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias” give a presentation on the importance of productive decision making to our April apprentices!

Free Minds apprentices are young men who have gone through all three phases of our program, Book Club, Continuing Support and Re-entry Support.  As part of our book club, they were youth between the ages of 15-17, charged as adults at the DC jail where we visited them twice a week to hold our book club sessions.  While in Continuing Support, we sent the guys books that they requested, our monthly newsletter the “Connect,” letters and birthday cards, and Re-entry Support that helps our released members attain job readiness, community support and educational resources.

Dave visited us and conducted an engaging and informative session incorporating facets of his real life experiences, a video presentation about the life of Len Bias as well as a well prepared power point presentation that kept our apprentices engaged and inquisitive!  One of our apprentices’, 17 year old Leon Epps, said “I really appreciated some of the things that he was teaching us, it was some real life stuff.” 

Dave and apprentices of the Free Minds Book Club after his presentation.

Dave introduced our apprentices to concepts such as the varying degrees of decision making, tools to making good decisions and how the decisions they make impact them and the people in their lives.  One of the main goals of our apprenticeship program is to help our apprentices change their lives by changing their thought process so Dave presentation was a perfect fit! 

Our apprentices greatly benefited from Dave’s presentation, and when we conducted our post apprenticeship evaluation, we asked the apprentices to list the sessions that they enjoyed the most, and more than half of them selected Mr. Ungrady’s session as one of their top choices.  We are very grateful for Dave’s participation and have invited him back for another session during our next apprenticeship starting in June.

Keela Hailes, Program Manager

Free MInds Book Club and Writing Workshop

Born Ready Project Supports umttr.org 3v3 Hoops Benefit Tournament

 

Since Evan Rosenstock took his life in May 2013, his friends and family have rallied to support suicide prevention and education. Most emphatically, the group started umttr, a community of young adults leading a movement to change the story from bullying, depression and suicide to a compassionate culture where every person matters.

umttr’s marquee fund raising event is a 3v3 basketball tournament, which will take place June 14 at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. The Born Ready Project is a promotional partner with umttr and has donated a speech to those attending.

Dave Ungrady, author of Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias and the founder of the project, will speak at the event about the importance of good decision making. Books will be available for purchase.

The event will showcase 8th – 12th grade basketball players (coed), men’s basketball (under 50 and over 50), and feature celebrity appearances, speakers, politicians and a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will support student mental health and wellness organizations.

For more information, contact Susan Rosenstock at 202-679-6869, susan@umttr.org. Register here.