Boys benefit from Westwood Schools’ ‘Beat the Streets’ program

 

By SUE SUCHYTA

Times-Herald Newspapers

HEIGHTS – Fifth- and sixth-grade boys at Thorne Elementary School in Westwood Community Schools are benefiting from “Beat the Streets,” a youth development program designed to improve their lives.

Malachi Lee Anderson, who works with the mentorship program, said the Westwood School District was first introduced to “Beat the Streets” through a visiting show, and the program has been benefiting fifth- and sixth-grade boys at Thorne for the past three years.

Westwood Schools social worker Mylah Ivory said the program originated from the autobiographical book “We Beat the Streets,” which was written by three African American men, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt, who, with writer Sharon Draper, told their story about growing up in Newark, N.J., and how they overcame obstacles through a pact to support each other’s education and become doctors.

“They all decided that they were going to go to medical school together,” she said. “They grew up in an area similar to Detroit, where there was poverty, a lot of drugs, and so they decided to break that trend.”

Anderson said advocate and program director Arthur Cartwright wrote a play “Beat the Streets” that is targeted at middle and high school students, showing them how to work together to accomplish great things.

“What we hope to do, the first immediate change, as far as their grades, their behavior, their social skills, emotional skills, that’s my immediate goal,” he said. “But at the same time, we do want a long-term thing, we want this to be something that they can hold on to.”

Anderson said they want the boys to form a lasting impression from this experience, so when they get older, they will remember what they learned in the fifth or sixth grade, when, for example, they might face pressure to join a gang.

Ivory said most of the boys in the program are African American, and they need to know some of the challenges that they will face based on their ethnicity.

Anderson said they have about 50 boys in the “Beat the Streets” program at Thorne, with Ivory adding that they have a similar group for girls called “The Power Within Me.”

Anderson said he can see that he is reaching the boys as a positive role model.

“I can understand more than a teacher can,” he said. “There is a barrier between student and teacher, and a lot of their teachers are Caucasian females and I’m a Black male, and I can relate to them.”

Anderson said that the boys will share something with him that they won’t share with their teachers or their peers.

He said that while he usually works with the students in a group, he will work with individuals afterwards when concerns are identified.

“I try to see what’s going on, and it’s usually something at home that’s going on that they just need to talk about and get off their chest, mainly,” Anderson said. “So, most sessions end with some type of one-on-ones with a few students.”

He said the group sessions include role-playing exercises and physical activities, so they are working on both their emotional and physical strength.

Thorne Elementary School Principal Lea Balogh said the program provides students with someone who will listen when they talk.

She said they often reach out to Anderson when a young man is struggling with something that they don’t want to talk about with someone at the school, or they need someone to help them develop a coping strategy.

“It’s just someone else, you know, someone outside of the school, not trying to teach you, not trying to defend you, not trying to yell at you or talk to your parents,” Balogh said. “It’s just more of a ‘What can I do to help you,’ and that’s really what Mr. Malachi tries to do, is figure out how he can help them become better people.”

She said Anderson isn’t focused on the boy’s past but on where they are going and what they need to do to make the future better for themselves.

Balogh said the children respect that the program is focused not on classroom type learning but on who they are, and that Anderson, as their mentor, cares about them as people and not just students.

“Here at school, our focus is on education, but his focus is on individuals and so, that makes a big difference in their eyes, sharing and listening and respecting and understanding that he is doing it for the right reasons,” she said. “And he’s been here long enough that some of these kids, their siblings have been here and they know Mr. Malachi and they’ve been to the play and the sessions and they’ve learned from it.”

Anderson said they recently talked about emotions and how to deal with them successfully.

Balogh said the students in the program use what they’ve learned and have become role models for their peers, and take the challenge seriously.

She said they use student surveys so the children can provide feedback about the program.

For more information about “Beat the Streets,” go to beatthestreets.org or btsdetroit.org.