Rochester, NY – A group of Rochester teens are spending three nights a week at the Edgerton R-Center for a new program called Ubuntu.
“Ubuntu itself is a Swahili word that means ‘I am because we are’ and I felt that was the most appropriate word to use for this project because it is about giving back and getting students and youth to explore and have an opportunity to meet each other and discuss life,” said program director Kareem McCullough.
The new program is funded through the Rochester Peace Collective, which is using $5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for programs that seek to prevent violence.
Ubuntu looks to do exactly that, by empowering teens and encouraging them to stay on the right track.
One day each week the teens, ages 14 to 18, meet for group therapy led by social workers.
“The mental health part is really important to me. If I learn these things as a teenager when you are in your biggest growth period, who knows how good I will be when I am an adult?” said Zyair Kent, a 15-year-old sophomore at Rochester Academy Charter High School.
“A lot of kids in our community have faced a lot of adversities and what they don’t realize is a lot of them share the same stories,” said McCullough. “So, in this setting, they are able to share that and help each other grow.”
The other two nights are dedicated to activities like art projects or cooking classes.
“The days I am cooking I might learn something about being a person, about being a man, a person in general,” said Kent. “You learn something every day you are here.”
Last week, the group went camping.
“These kids have never been on a camping trip before,” McCullough explained. “They slept in the woods in the tents, in sleeping bags. They pitched their own tents, slept outside and after I asked, they all said ‘we learned something. We learned something new that we didn’t know before we started.’”
The group is in week six of the 30 week program. McCullough, who grew up in Rochester, said if he has learned anything in the last six weeks, it’ that it’s important for kids to have a space where they can have open discussions about mental health.
“We all have a voice that needs to be heard,” said McCullough. “And, unfortunately for kids who come from the community I come from, that voice has been not heard for way too long. So, this is giving them an opportunity to be heard and be attached to something and someone who cares.”
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