Habits
of Success
M3's focus is on creating Habits of Success; or the "small" habits
that lead to big achievements. Time management, organization,
cooperation, preparation, conflict resolution and many
other small habits or competencies together form habits
of success. Much of our work is centered on these "small" habits,
and it is here that we often see the first signs of
our success. Once the basic skills of organization
and preparation are subsumed, academics and behaviors
start to improve.
Most youth that are successful in school have attained
these habits through concerted efforts by their parents,
but M3's target  group has lacked focused parenting
for various reasons. These reasons could be that parents
are overworked or that they have issues that have prevented
them from performing their proper parenting duties.
As a consequence, M3, in order to engender Habits
of Success, performs some of the parenting functions
by offering guidance and structure - the base foundation
for creating the mindset for habit creation.
Habitual Results
As an organization working with the most "at risk" group
of black boys and young men, the M3 Foundation is unique
in providing measurable results. In its first year,
M3 assisted the boys in achieving average improvements
in mathematics grades from 1.9 to 3.14 (from a D/F
grade to a B). The average in the boys GPA increased
from 2.4 to 3.0. These results show that the boys are
able to participate on an academic level that ensures
that they will avoid dropping out. M3 has since expanded
to work in all the middle schools in Berkeley with
similar success.
M3's focus has been on the whole person; we believe
that healing and success can only be achieved by including
the emotional, spiritual, physical and social aspects
of the person. As such, parents and family or alternate
support mechanisms are an important part of the program.
Health and nutrition are also central. Physical fitness
has been consistently worked on and in less than a
year the boys almost doubled the amount of push-ups
they were able to do as well as reduced by two minutes
their time for running a mile. Important habits, such
as eating breakfast and reduced intake of highly processed
carbohydrates, are now steady, encouraged habits with
the boys.
To facilitate the emotional aspect of becoming a young
black man, M3 ensures that there is ample contact with
male role models, both from the university environment
and accomplished professionals. Whereas higher education
was not a consideration for any of the boys at the
start of the program, now they are aware of the opportunities,
have visited the campus of a top university and are
relating to young men attending these colleges. Whereas
careers in sports and hip hop were the only expressed
aspirations, today they are aware of multiple avenues
to achieve success.
Source: Ed-Data 2004-05 www.ed-data.k12.ca.us
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