Tied to Greatness

What is Tied to Greatness National Tour?

Objective

The outlook for young Men of Color is not promising. We intend to foster self pride in these young Men of Color so they will recognize the power of their self - image, and ultimately, make better life choices by implementing the following strategies:

Strategies

1. We overwhelm the young men with images of strong, educated, articulate, well groomed Men of Color to combat the negative stereotypes seen in their environment.
2. We teach the young men the power and importance of a strong self image through personal stories from positive influential Men of Color.
3. We teach them to “tie a tie” as a ritualistic right of passage which will ignite personal pride in appearances and build inner self esteem.
4. We have each young man recite the Tied to Greatness Pledge whereby they commit themselves to finish their education, live a better life, and be more conscious of thier image.
5. We provide each young man with a copy of the pledge and a tie that they can keep for future special events.
6. We provide a copy of, Restoring the Male Image, as a reference book to reiterate all that they have learned that day.

The Tied To Greatness National Tour is an outreach program that seeks to improve the self-image and esteem of at-risk, inner city high school males. With an average of just 35% of inner city males graduating from high school, Tied To Greatness uses the power of positive male role models, the influence of fashion, and the symbolism of the necktie as a point of manhood and maturity to remind young men about the importance of personal image, and to encourage each participant to make different choices about his future. The Tied To Greatness National Tour travels to cities and host 3-hour local presentations to at risk high school males, with the vision of inspiring a generation through personal touch and principled based dialogue. This is an initiative to reconnect young men of color to their rich history of men who dressed well, carried themselves with dignity, and accomplished great things in society.

TEN9EIGHT : Shoot For the Moon

TEN9EIGHT isn’t just a documentary. It’s the beginning of a conversation and the start of a movement. Our hope is that you are inspired by the film and motivated to both learn more and take action – to expand opportunities for entrepreneurs from low-income communities, and to introduce more people to this important issue. Start by exploring the resources below, which include links to several partner organizations and information about the issues that are defined by the film.

U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, introduces TEN9EIGHT