Sims-Fayola Foundation

My son’s enjoy participating in the various SFF events. They have been exposed to skiing, horseback riding, and engineering field careers through field trips and workshops. I am grateful for the impact on my boys! One of my boys participated in the summer program also. WOW, what an experience. He talked about the activities daily. He looked forward to returning every day.

Sims Fayola truly understands the needs of young black and brown men of color anthems barriers to success that need to be removed. Their holistic approach to addressing their educational, social , career development needs, enable the young men to to be put on a definite tract to be successful in school and life.
Also they understand that in order for these young men to Acheive in school they need to have teachers that look like them and understand them. Thus their educator fellows program is critical to enticing and securing more Barack and brown to to become teachers and sustain that profession!

Having been involved with the Sims Fayola Foundation for many years, I have seen the positive impact the organization has had on many youths. Their education and mentoring programs are what we need to give young men a positive example of themselves and who they could be in the world!

Run away. The founder of this foundation has zero idea how to successfully work with children of color. All his examples come from a failed boys school that he ran. That school had a 99% teacher turn over rate and a different principal each of the three years it was open before it closed. The founder has almost no understanding how to teach and run a professional development session. He was often unprepared and many times he didn't even show up. When he ran a class in our school he promised things to kids and didn't deliver. Every teacher I spoke to in my building laughed every week we had to listen to this guy who is a complete fraud. Literally he speaks and people laugh at him because he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. It seems that he is making money off selling something he doesn't have and that is a knowledge and an ability to work successfully with children of color. You can do better than working with this failed foundation and I guarantee that if you hire him your teachers will see right through him. This important work needs to be done with someone who has credibility and isn't just trying to make money off children of color. Shameful what this guy is doing.

Full disclosure… I am on the board of directors for Sims-Fayola. I am submitting this statement because I am proud of the work this organization does and always impressed by the energy and passion of its staff, especially Mr. Dedrick Sims. Sims-Fayola offers a variety of very valuable programs and services for the young men we serve and even more services and programs for their educators, advocates, parents as well as other groups that work with young men (especially young men of color). Programs provided by Sims-Fayola include:

For Boys:
• The Boys Are Talking Forum (annual)
• Empowered Ambition Youth Development Program for Young Men,
• STARS Mentoring Program
• Sims-Fayola Community Mentoring Program (starting soon)
• I Am A Fayola Man Summer Leadership Academy (starting soon)

For Educators:
• Hardwired by Nature: School/Program Design Through An Equity Lens Workshop
• Working With Boys of Color Workshop Series
• Sims-Fayola Equity Academy (new this year)

For Parents:
• Connecting With Your Sons workshop

I have witnessed and participated in many of these events personally and they are professionally conducted, informative and effective and I think it is very unfortunate that the internet allows anyone with a personal gripe or grudge to air their personal opinions without basis and free of fact-checking. As a board member for this organization, I share accountability and pledge to you that we are operating our organization and programs with fidelity and impact. Our books and programs are open and have been thoroughly scrutinized by all board members, funders and outside council. Last school year (2018-2019) we impacted 3,125 young men nationally, 375 young men in the Denver metro area, and provided workshops and coaching for 400 educators through our equity and working with boys of color workshops. I invite anyone with a concern about our product or impact to attend any of our events, all advertised on our website, and make your own judgements. I am proud to be associated with the Sims-Fayola Foundation, it's CEO, and the families and young men that we impact every day. I also invite anyone who knows of any way we as an organization can be more effective or provide more value to our community, to come and meet with us. We are very open to your suggestions, and eager to hear your recommendations and even criticisms; because for all of us here, it is about making a difference with our youth.

Feel free to learn more about our organization, as well as read reviews from workshop participants on our website at: https://www.sffoundation.org/services.html. I really hope you will join us at one of our events. Stay tuned to our website to learn when they are happening.

I have had the opportunity to experience several of the events that Sims-Fayola Foundation has put on over the years. It is powerful, eye opening and inspiring to see the dedication that this foundation has for young men of color. Mr. Sims is changing the lives of everyone he touches with this foundation from the young men, to the mentors, all the way to the educators. I see nothing but positive things coming out of the Sims-Fayola Foundation.

I've worked with Sims-Fayola Foundation as a vendor for a number of years now. The work they do with young men is outstanding! If it weren't for them a lot of boys would not have gotten an opportunity for a college education and in a lot of cases graduating from high school! My hope for their foundation is that they continue the great work they do in the community and to expand to other communities!

As a current board member of the Sims-Fayola Foundation, I take no greater pleasure in the work that we are doing for student of color, especially young men and boys of color. I am severely disappointed that someone would make up fake names and post unsavory things about our organization over what is clearly a personal issue. However, the internet allows anyone with an issue to post things and to post them anonymously. Please check out our website and social media pages to see the great things we are doing in our community for both students of color and the teachers who work with them.

Jeffery B
Owner Jeffery B Jewelers

I very STRONGLY caution anyone about getting involved with this organization. I did, and I learned a hard, sad lesson from it. My experience with the CEO over a period of more than a year through 2018 was extremely negative. I saw inside this organization and cannot even express how far away you need to run. I wish I could be more explicit in this post. If you value your money, time, integrity, and/or our Colorado boys and community and if you wish to avoid humiliation, shock, anger, and/or liability, choose any other organization in this town.

AVOID putting any time or money into this organization. As someone else noted, all of the reviews over the fall of 2017 are from people I know to be the CEO's close friends and intimate partners.

When I worked with the organization in 2017, the CEO described the board as incompetent and told me several times he was going to shut the doors because the foundation was financially failing.

The CEO's 2018 efforts to open charter "academies" in Mississippi and Arkansas were failures (while the people named by the CEO to run the MS school are still collecting money for the school on Go Fund Me). The CEO's Denver school shut down less than 3 years after opening after significant investments by the Colorado community. The organization's scholarship program failed after 1 year and the 3 scholarships the CEO actually managed to distribute (using money collected in Colorado) went to young men from southern high schools (AR, AL and GA) to use at southern colleges (AR, TN, GA).

I do not want my resources funneled out of my community (Denver/Aurora) for the CEO's investments, experiments, and personal travel in Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. I do not want to put time and money into an organization that is not producing any results. Think about that as you decide where to donate or spend time.

The 6 glowing reviews (all dated within a week in September 2017) were written by Dedrick Sims' pals and "romantic" partners. Deceitful and lecherous people are in no position to be role models for boys or young men. Nonprofits are not supposed to be fund-raising vehicles for personal travel or to create the illusion of a luxury lifestyle. If you need confirmation of the work being done, look at the Sims Fayola website and notice nothing is happening: only a single event in 2018, the end of his much lauded scholarship program and the lack of information on the apparently defunct Gordon Turner project or search the net for information on the failed Sims Fayola school in Denver.

Be careful with this "foundation" before you involve yourself or contribute any time or money. Absolutely everyday I regret getting involved with Dedrick and with his organization.

I have had the opportunity to participate in one of the Sims-Fayola Foundation's young men's forums, and have also been able to spend some time working directly with Dedrick Sims in one of his Youth Leadership development courses in a local area middle-school. What I have seen and experienced with my involvement with the Sims-Fayola Foundation, is an organization that is powerfully invested in the success and achievement of, not only young men of color, but also young men that come from economically distressed backgrounds, regardless of their race or cultural upbringing. In our society, we need more men, like Mr. Dedrick Sims that care about the young men in our society so much that they are willing to dedicate their entire life to them. As a father of 5 young men, I will always be rooting for his success, as well as, the success of the Sims-Fayola Foundation.

I joined this non - profit solely because of the passion, vision, experience, and tenacity of the CEO, Dedrick Sims. As an educator with 20+ years of experience, the programs Dedrick designed will change the life outcomes of thousands of urban males. He's truly a game changer, and I'm honored to be a part of this organization.

The Sims-Fayola Foundation Works to improve the life outcome of young men. Statistics show how difficult it is for young men of color to succeed in school, in life, and make their dreams come true. The foundation works with schools, opens schools, and mentors young men of color to learn how to overcome obstacles, statistics, and stereotypes. They provide strategies, encouragement, and support in their schools that boys don't receive in a traditional setting. They mentor young men to help them envision a better life. They support young men in all aspects of life.

This organization serves an amazing purpose of helping end the school-to-jail pipeline that unfortunately occurs for many kids in underserved areas. The level of the Foundation's hands-on community involvement is unmatched. The leader of the org, Dedrick Sims, is an educator who is passionate about helping young kids set themselves up for success. As a past board member, I fully support the Foundation and its work.