| Program Description | The purpose of M.O.B. is to empower Black men and women and provide them with a counter space and sense of community that will allow students to utilize each other as systems of support to aid in increased access, retention, and overall personal, academic and professional development. The core values of M.O.B. are unity, Black culture, culturally validating identity development and K-12 outreach in urban, hood’ communities. Rooted in these core values, M.O.B. objective is to increase access to and retention in higher education for underserved Black men and women and develop students into scholars/leaders. Furthermore, to establish a sense of belonging for Black males in both K-12 and in higher education rooted in mentorship, culture and identity. Overall, the goal is to bridge the gap between community and higher education and solidify a pipeline for Black men and women to enroll, retain and graduate from college.
M.O.B. partners with West Oakland Middle School and McClymonds High School in developing a higher education access pipeline of which College M.O.B. students mentors work with K-12 student mentees in a cultural way that affirms the lived experiences of urban Black youth. At the college level, California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) being the first college partnership via student club on campus; M.O.B. is a cohort of 12 currently enrolled Black men and women students at CSUEB and San Francisco State University (SFSU). It is a community of individuals that support, validate, challenge and grow together. Components are regular intragroup dialogue sessions on Black identity through forms of Hip Hop cultural expression, historical and contemporary racism including internalized racism and contemporary issues in the community at the collegiate level. Furthermore, components include graduate/professional school workshops, financial literacy, leadership development, study sessions and “talk shit” sessions of which students have the space to talk more loosely on contemporary cultural trends that they see in the community that impact them on and off campus. These sessions on campus have been critical in engaging Black men and women and establishing a sense of belonging for them at the college campus, transpiring to their work and engagement with their K-12 youth.
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