Susan Taylor’s National CARES Mentoring Movement recruits black men and women, and provides them with the necessary tools, to be mentors to our black youth.

From subpar education to gun violence, to health and wellness; our young people face a unique set of challenges.

As Taylor explains in an insightful op-ed, “It’s Up To Us To Restore A Generation,” it is essential that older generations take the time to affirm, listen to, and help guide today’s youth.

From Open Society:

This is another fact that grips me: When the call goes out for mentors, white women and men respond first, and black women and men respond last. It is my mission, and the mandate of the organization I founded while still chief editor at Essence magazine to replace these dream-crushing statistics that are our children’s realities, with the ones our ancestors sacrificed their lives for—and by that sacrifice, demanded that we, too, ensure the following generations’ wellness.

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Ultimately though, it’s not what happens this month or next month. It’s about what we commit our hearts to every day—including our own health and healing—so that each child within reach of our collective voice knows that the black community is speaking, at last and together, these words: We will not let you fall. We will not let you be lost. Not on our watch. We care.

Read more, and learn about the National CARES Mentoring Movement here.

 

How can we do a better job of guiding today’s youth?

Will you be a mentor to a young person in your community?

Sound off below!