The Bridge to Change

When studying history, it becomes pretty clear that it’s always been the role of young people to spark change in the world. Malcolm X was 32 years old when he stepped onto the national stage by galvanizing thousands of people to address police brutality in New York City.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was 26 years old when he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott that protested racial segregation in the public transit system. Mary McLeod Bethune was 29 years old when she opened the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in 1904. She built the desks and chairs herself. The school started with 5 girls but ended up with 250 students. The school later merged into the Bethune Cookman College. These influential and culture-shifting leaders had mentors who showed them how to be self-asserted, conscientious, and thoughtful in their leadership before they became who the world now knows them to be. Mentors exist to provide emerging leaders with a philosophy of life based on the world that exists. We live in a world that has grown to be more complicated socially while remaining plagued with recurring themes of racial dehumanization affecting people both internally and externally. The Bridge to Change is a guide to provide leaders with a set of tools to create, shape, and maintain a rehumanizing culture that focuses on the development of a strong sense of self, productivity, and emotional health in the lives of those they serve. There will also be specific discussions on social issues that will be framed in a way that promotes positive change, a restoration of hope, and an avenue to emotional health. Two of the keys to reaching our destinies individually and communally is by having leaders chart the course by using their own lives as an example of how to change and by creating practical, socially applicable strategies to help heal the communities they serve which begins with an awareness of the issues. Let this guide serve as a catalyst to changing the lives of those you serve and the broader community.     About the Author: Jonathan Frejuste is an author and the creator of TheBridge330, a mentoring program whose mission is to provide quality mentoring tools and resources to underserved, under-resourced, and vulnerable communities in ways that support sustained social change, a restoration of hope, and an avenue to emotional health. You can learn more about his work at www.thebridge330.com.