Executive Leadership Proposal

The 100 Black Men of the Upstate Leadership Academy is a structured, two-cohort youth development program that transforms our chapter's long-standing commitment to mentoring into a repeatable, board-governed system. This proposal asks the Executive Board to formally charter the Academy as the organization's flagship mentoring platform and to adopt the accompanying Curriculum & Facilitator Guide, Scholar & Mentor Handbook, and National Leadership Capstone Guide as its operating standards.

The Academy exists to close a specific and measurable gap: too many of the young people our chapter is positioned to serve are graduating without the leadership skills, financial literacy, and professional exposure that determine long-term life outcomes. Our members already have the relationships, the credibility, and the community standing to close that gap — what has been missing is a documented, transferable system that survives leadership transitions and scales with demand.

The ask: Board approval to (1) formally charter the Leadership Academy under the Genesis and Legacy Cohort model, (2) adopt the four-volume operating manual as chapter policy, and (3) approve the first-year budget outlined in Section 12.

Community Need

Across the Upstate, African American youth continue to face a compounding set of barriers to opportunity: under-resourced schools, limited access to professional networks, and a scarcity of consistent, invested adult role models. These are not new challenges for our chapter — they are the reason 100 Black Men of America was founded in 1963 and the reason our local chapter exists today. What has changed is the urgency: without an intentional pipeline of leadership development, the young people we could be reaching age out of eligibility having received sporadic mentoring rather than a sustained, developmental experience.

Data

100 Black Men of America's national mentoring model — Mentoring the 100 Way — reaches youth ages 8 to 18 across the network and, together with the organization's full slate of programs, touches more than 125,000 underserved youth annually. That scale demonstrates the model works; it also underscores the gap between national reach and the structured, curriculum-driven experience an individual chapter can offer without a formal Academy in place.

Our Opportunity

The Upstate chapter has the mentor base, the community credibility, and the partner relationships to run a leadership program at a level few youth-serving organizations in the region can match. What we have lacked is not capability but infrastructure: a shared curriculum, a consistent mentor playbook, and a clear scholar journey that any future Director of Mentoring can pick up and run without rebuilding it from scratch.

A community in which every Upstate scholar who enters the Leadership Academy graduates with the confidence, character, and competence to lead — in the classroom, in their career, and in their community — and returns, in time, as a mentor to the next generation.

To develop African American youth into principled, capable leaders through a structured two-year leadership curriculum, sustained one-on-one mentoring, and hands-on community leadership experience — delivered by 100 Black Men of the Upstate in partnership with scholars, mentors, and families.

The Academy is built on a simple premise: leadership is a taught skill, not an inherited trait. Every academy session pairs a leadership principle with a concrete, practiced application. Three commitments anchor the model:

• Consistency over intensity — a predictable monthly rhythm of academies, mentor contact, and family engagement builds trust faster than occasional high-energy events.
• Practice over lecture — every principle is reinforced through role-play, case study, or a real deliverable, not passive instruction.
• Documentation over improvisation — a written curriculum, mentor playbook, and handbook mean the Academy's quality does not depend on any single volunteer's memory.

• Genesis Cohort — Identity, Foundation, and Leadership. The entry point for new scholars, focused on self-awareness, character, and the foundational habits of leadership.
• Legacy Cohort — Service, Influence, and Impact. The advanced track for returning scholars, focused on community leadership, mentorship of younger peers, and the National Capstone project.

Both cohorts attend the same eight Saturday sessions each year (September–April), so curriculum and expectations stay consistent across the full scholar body while each cohort carries its own identity and alumni pride. Legacy Cohort scholars additionally continue into the National Leadership Capstone track (Boot Camp, National Competition, and graduation) from May through July. Over time, this creates a visible pipeline: Genesis Cohort → Legacy Cohort → Collegiate 100 → chapter membership and future mentorship.

Every mentor commits to a defined, documented standard rather than an open-ended volunteer role. At minimum, mentors maintain monthly one-on-one contact with their assigned scholar, attend academy sessions when possible, complete brief post-contact reporting, uphold clear professional boundaries, and partner with families on each scholar's individual goals. Full expectations, monthly conversation guides, and the accountability structure are detailed in Volume III and the companion Mentor Playbook.

Scholar outcomes improve when families are treated as partners rather than bystanders. Parents and guardians are asked to commit to consistent attendance and drop-off/pickup reliability, open communication with mentors and coordinators, participation in at least one family-facing event per semester, and reinforcement of academy assignments at home. In return, the Academy commits to transparent communication, advance scheduling, and regular progress updates.

• Entry — Application, family orientation, and mentor matching into the Genesis Cohort.
• Foundation Year — Monthly academies, one-on-one mentoring, and the beginning of the Leadership Portfolio.
• Advancement — Promotion into the Legacy Cohort upon meeting attendance, service, and portfolio benchmarks.
• Capstone — Team-based community problem-solving project, culminating in the National Leadership Capstone competition.
• Graduation — Completion of attendance, service, leadership hours, and portfolio requirements; formal recognition at the annual ceremony.
• Alumni Pipeline — Pathway into Collegiate 100, chapter membership, and future mentorship roles.

The Leadership Academy runs eight Saturday sessions from September through April, shared by both the Genesis and Legacy Cohorts, followed by the Legacy Cohort's National Leadership Capstone track through July. Sessions run 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at Upstate Circle of Friends unless otherwise announced.

A detailed line-item budget will be developed jointly with the Treasurer during the chartering process; the categories below reflect the Academy's core cost centers for Board planning purposes.

• Enrollment and retention rate across Genesis and Legacy Cohorts, by intake.
• Attendance rate at monthly academies and mentor contact-completion rate.
• Graduation rate against defined attendance, service, and portfolio benchmarks.
• Advancement rate from Genesis to Legacy Cohort and from Legacy Cohort to Collegiate 100.
• Capstone participation and performance at the National Leadership Capstone competition.
• Family engagement participation rate and end-of-year satisfaction feedback.

The Academy's curriculum depends on subject-matter experts and site partners — financial institutions for the Financial Literacy academy, local employers for career exploration, and community organizations for service-learning components of the Capstone. The Director of Mentoring will maintain a standing partner roster so each academy can draw on a consistent bench of qualified volunteers rather than ad hoc recruitment each cycle.

The Legacy Cohort's capstone experience is designed as this chapter's pipeline into 100 Black Men of America's national leadership competition circuit. Scholar teams identify a real community problem, research it, design an innovative solution, build a financial plan, and deliver a professional presentation — modeled as a collegiate honors project rather than a school assignment.

This Executive Leadership Proposal is Volume I of the Leadership Academy Operating Manual. Volumes II–IV (Curriculum & Facilitator Guide, Scholar & Mentor Handbook, and National Leadership Capstone Guide), together with the companion Mentor Playbook, provide the full operational detail behind each section above.