This awareness led us to design an organization that has taken the digital divide into consideration in all of its programming. The Village Foundation is doing this directly and by example though its' six Pathway programs and its 32 grassroots organizations. Programs funded by the Village Foundation provide direct services to approximately 200,000 young men and we currently have an outreach to approximately one million African-American young men and their families. For our constituency of men and boys to take the first steps toward changing their lives, they must believe that someone already believes in them. When they increase the number of their attachments to committed caregivers their naturally high motivation to succeed is maintained or increased.
Literacy is the key to increasing the participation of African-American men and boys.
The Village Foundation Village Success Club, which includes the Books for Boys program, is directed at boys between the ages of seven and 21. Their three-year longitudinal study of 700 boys demonstrated that the grassroots programs funded by the Foundation, utilizing this model of mentoring and a safe place, produce measurable positive outcomes. Every day computer literacy and access become more and more essential to being a functioning and productive U.S. citizen. It is in the best interest of every American that we reach out to marginalized African-American boys and young men with a deeper sense of personal and national responsibility and help them bridge the digital divide. Only then will they have an opportunity earn a place at the center where they can participate with the rest of us in the responsibilities and rewards that accrue to fully functioning members of our civil society.