by Mitchell Sasser | WeINSPIRE Reporter 

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Motivated by a desire to be positive role models for young men coming from single-parent households and under-resourced communities in Prince George’s County, Maryland, four men founded Mentoring to Manhood in 2005. In its founding, these men began to realize an opportunity to transform the lives of the youth in their community.

According to this video produced in 2018, nearly 14% of youth in Prince George’s County are neither in school nor employed. As Mentoring to Manhood grew and expanded, it merged with Community Tutoring Inc., also located in Prince George’s County, and became Community Youth Advance.

Community Youth Advance was aided by a grant from the Maryland State Department of Education. Once it was formally launched as an organization, it now needed an executive director. That’s where Danielle Middlebrooks came in.   

The opportunity to support those in need was important to Middlebrooks as evidenced in her professional pursuits. The “people who need support in everyday life” struck a heartstring with her, and she knew she had the skills to help in some way.  

Prior to her involvement with Community Youth Advance, Middlebrooks previously worked as a Marketing Assistant and Consumer Products Representative for The National Football League (NFL) , and also as a Strategic Projects Liaison at The Arc Prince George’s County. Their mission at The Arc is to “provide support, understanding, and opportunities for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.”   

“These are adults who have dreams and desires and opportunities to be great, but they need support in doing that,” Middlebrooks said. “The Arc was providing that support.”

 Middlebrooks felt her time spent with the Arc prepared her to take on the challenge of Community Youth Advance. Her attitude was to take everything she learned in college classes, in working professionally, and her time in nonprofits to help mold this organization and set it up for success.

 “We went from serving 75 young boys to serving more than 650 students in Prince George’s County - boys and girls,” Middlebrooks said. “Providing mentoring and tutoring services, after-school programs, summer academy, and a Saturday school.”

 Middlebrooks shared Prince George’s is an incredibly diverse county with many different families, cultures, and backgrounds represented. 

“We have a lot of students who are first-generation who have come here from other countries, who may have had interruptions in their formal schooling, who may not speak English as a first language.”

 “[Community Youth Advance is] an organization that helps them feel comfortable and welcome within their school setting. We have a lot of students who come in who are used to being translators for their parents or who just are brand new here, and not just here in Prince George’s County or here in high school or here in junior high school, they are new in the United States.”

 Middlebrooks said mentors help students feel settled, at home, and most importantly, welcome. Working with young people has always been a passion of Middlebrook’s’, but the opportunity to translate that into her professional life didn’t happen until Community Youth Advance. For her, this is an opportunity to be a positive role model in a child’s life. 

 “It’s also incredibly humbling because you have to remember that these students are looking to you for inspiration,” Middlebrooks said. “They’re looking to our teachers, our tutors, our program to stand in the gap where maybe no one else is standing in the gap. It reminds us that we can’t drop the ball, that what we’re doing is very, very important and these students may not otherwise be exposed to these experiences or opportunities if not for our organization.”

Middlebrooks is the oldest child and oldest cousin in her extended family and has always been a responsible caretaker of those around her. For Middlebrooks, it’s all about helping others put their path together so that they can see the trajectory of where they are headed.

“To know that you had a hand in being a positive role model for a child or providing an experience that they might not have had otherwise is exciting,” Middlebrooks said.

When it comes to the impact Community Youth Advance has on the students that they serve, the statistics speak for themselves. 100% of sixth graders who attended the program at least 80% of the time increased their day school math grade by one letter grade or more. The same applies to 86% of sixth graders and their day school reading grade.

Erica Edelen-Barnes is a parent who uses Community Youth Advance for her children. Edelen-Barnes has a daughter who is 14 and a son who is 11, and they have both been attending the Saturday School that Community Youth Advance offers for the past four year

“For both of the kids, I really think that the program has helped them because in the school, during the day, the teachers don’t really have the luxury of teaching as much as they can because of all the testing requirements and all these other things,” Edelen-Barnes said. “I’m finding that things that I learned in school, my kids don’t have the luxury of doing that, so Saturday school has definitely provided them with additional support.” 

Edelen-Barnes said that tutoring for her daughter is great, and that her son is getting more assistance with math. Edelen-Barnes attributes her daughter getting into a specialty program at Charles H. Flowers High School with her time spent at Community Youth Advance Saturday School.   

 “We love to say that we teach, reach, and keep youth on the path to success, and that really encompasses all of our pillars,” Middlebrooks said. “Teach is all our academic programs, our afterschool programs, our tutoring. Reach describes all of our mentorship programs and how we are reaching and meeting these youth where they are. Keep is sort of our pathways program which permeates all aspects of our program. It’s talking about where are you going to be – what does eighth grade look like for a sixth-grader, what does high school look like, what does postgraduate look like. Is it college, is it career prep, how are we helping to prepare you for success?”

Community Youth Advance was one of the recipients of the 2019 True Inspiration Award from the Chick-fil-A Foundation.