Program Impact

The FLMYA has served 28 Black youth to date and will serve another 25 Black youth throughout this 2023-2024 school year. Due to its success in Marin City, the FLMYA has also expanded this year from its original Marin City cohort to 3 cohorts - including two at Davidson Middle School, with our first girl’s cohort!

For the 2022-2023 Marin City cohort, 100% of participants surveyed reported that they:

• experienced an increase in self-confidence;

• were better leaders;

• felt safe during sessions;

• felt more empowered; and

• were better able to identify the positive and negative effects of friendships and handle difficult emotions.

83.33% of 2022-2023 Marin City participants reported:

• that felt that they have the power to change the world and

• that their self-esteem increased.

When asked “Why was being a part of the Youth Academy important to you?,” participants responded with “because I had a chance to learn more about our Black history,” “it taught me things that I think are going to help me go far in life,” [i]It just felt like I was becoming more of a man,” and that it provided “a brotherhood.”

Many of these participants also saw a three-letter grade increase based on our partnership with their English Language Arts instructor to provide after school support.

One participant describes his experience in the FLMYA as follows: “I look forward to going and being in MCCT’s Youth Academy program. It’s fun because I get to hang out with my friends and talk about different topics that can help me in life. It’s also helped me to be more confident in myself and taught me coping skills with my bad anger problem, if it wasn’t for this program I don't know if I’d be headed down a good path.”