The Hearts of Men Foundation

Programs: Creative writing - fiction, screen, and stage. For at-risk youths who dream of being a writer, the hearts of men foundation's eight-part art of commercial fiction gives them a glimpse of a writing career and the life of a writer. Students are immersed in creative exercises that stretch their ability to write, envision possibilities, and overcome writer's block. The students are able to participate in provocative class discussions that validate our writing processes. Thomf believes the tips, techniques, and advice that our published writers and educators provide to our students are invaluable as these students discover the right niches for their work. During this fiscal year, thomf trained 86 young writers at its tucker recreation center campus in tucker, ga. Thomf also taught media courses on screenwriting and stage plays. We trained our students to write compelling screenplays that are impossible to stop reading, vividly cinematic, properly formatted, and realistically producible. Our screenwriting courses guided our students in creating characters, building plots, shaping scenes, sharpening dialogue, and, of course, peddling their scripts. For stage plays, we taught how to choose a good story, dramatize it, and structure it to retain the interest of a theatrical audience. During this fiscal year, thomf's students participated in the production of the "dark child" video. All of our media courses were held at our tucker recreation center campus in tucker, ga.

triumph - man-up, pen 2 pencil, and ged. The hearts of men foundation is proud that it has touched more than 1,400 youths in weekly mentoring programs and that it has redirected many previously incarcerated youths to college campuses. The at-risk students in our trouble to triumph program have been incarcerated, expelled, or suspended from traditional schools. Our program begins with man-up (men accepting neophytes and uplifting pupils). Man-up uses seminars to instill anger management and to role play in proven methods of resisting destructive peer pressure. For our successful graduates, we redirect them to partners who then provide additional opportunities to complete high-school diplomas (our ged option) and continue into college (our pen 2 pencil option). During this fiscal year, thomf mentored 56 at-risk youths in man-up. All triumph training took place in or around juvenile detention centers. Consequently, the budget for triumph was mainly for fuel and maintenance on a van provided by the dekalb county department of recreation.

lifestyle - food, clothing, shelter, medical, and entertainment. Typical at-risk youths in any of thomf's programs do not have all the basic necessities that traditional teachers take for granted. Our students can enter our classrooms hungry, shoeless, and wearing ragged clothing. Some don't have basic toiletries. Almost none has pen and paper. And some really appreciate an opportunity to kick back in safety with their peers and enjoy entertainment such as a group movie rental. Consequently, our major lifestyle expenditures for 106 students this fiscal year were food ($4,203), clothing ($1,840), shelter ($1,620), entertainment ($103), and medical ($25). Thomf spent none of its contributions on traditional expenditures such as salaries, capital funds, or capital equipment. We depended on our donors' vision and generosity to underwrite 100% of our youth programs. We believe our programs are making small, incremental improvements in the lives of our principal customers: young, under educated, overly streetwise, black youth. We also believe that our various programs are scalable, and that with good management controls and great volunteers, our youth programs within the hearts of men foundation can reach a larger audience.

the hearts of men foundation helped produce the "dark child" video as a literacy exercise.