Youth Foundation seeks to enhance self esteem and pride in accomplishment

Atlanta, GA – The Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation and Morehouse College have announced their partnership to mount a campaign to unite ethics and leadership and to train young people to become leaders with a conscience. Bound together through the legacy of the Atlanta’s first African American Mayor Maynard Jackson, a Morehouse alumnus, these two organizations recognize their mutual benefits in the fields of education, training, and leadership development and will work together to create an aggressive ethical leadership curriculum and to disseminate such knowledge, on a long term basis, focusing on the Atlanta Metropolitan area. Dr. Walter Earl Fluker, executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse, and Brooke Jackson Edmond, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of the Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation and Mayor Jackson’s daughter, have been catalysts for this partnership. “My father was a Morehouse man from his heart. He was dedicated to this institution as well as to the principals of ethical leadership. The abiding desire to carry on his legacy led me to Dr. Fluker’s door a few months ago. Our vision for the MJYF is to edify fundamental values and life skills, encourage moral commitments and develop the ability to engage in ethical reasoning – a mission already articulated by Dr. Robert Franklin, the president of Morehouse College,” said Ms. Edmond. “The forces of money, power, and technology are on a collision course with the fragile traditions of character, civility and community. This is dangerous territory,” says Dr. Fluker. “Who will train a new generation of courageous, globally connected, ethically centered leaders. Enter the Leadership Center at Morehouse,” he added. Dr. Fluker has lead the efforts at the Leadership Center at Morehouse since … and had worked closely with Maynard Jackson during the early life of The Leadership Center. Phase I of the partnership between the MJYF and Morehouse will consist of an assessment of needs and the design of the requisite curriculum. This phase will further define the participation of students, faculty, and administrators at each partner institution, and will identify the requisite training and funding requirements for a pilot program and subsequent implementations of the MJYF program. The deliverable from Phase I will be the pilot program. The Maynard Jackson Youth Foundation, a Georgia non-profit organization, was founded by Mayor Maynard Jackson in 1992 to teach leadership skills to young people. John Holley, the foundation president and Valerie Jackson, Mayor Jackson’s widow and the Chair of the Board of the Foundation, have been responsible for many components of the programs including leadership training. In October, 2009, the MJYF Leadership Academy will begin its 18th Leadership Academy class of 11th grade high school students from Atlanta Public Schools and the first class from high schools located in South Fulton County. Students are selected by their high school counselors to participate in the academy for one year. “The Youth Foundation seeks to enhance self esteem and pride in accomplishment, to support a positive value system and to instill a commitment to ethical public service for the youth we work with,” said Ms. Edmond. “These are the principles my father taught those around him to live by and these are the values that we remain committed to pass on to the students of today. We hope to broaden the reach of MJYF and bring meaningful programs to the metro Atlanta community as a part of my father’s legacy,” Ms. Edmond added. •