Our Foundation
The Ladder for America’s foundation of service is built in four areas, including our mentorship program, leadership development, school presentations, and the college application preparation program.
Our Foundation
The Ladder for America’s foundation of service is built in four areas, including our mentorship program, leadership development, school presentations, and the college application preparation program.
The Ladder's Foundation of Service
1. Mentorship program
Studies show that the most vulnerable time in the life of a school age child is during middle school. The peak time for suspensions occur in grades six through eight and 24% of all Black U.S. born students in North Minneapolis had been suspended from school at least once, in 2009. The Ladder provides individual mentorship for middle school aged members to provide a positive impact.
2. Leadership Development & Training
Character and leadership development forms a solid foundation for future success and is integrated into our program framework. We will provide leadership training for high school members, as they will be the intermediate leadership link between the younger mentees and the mentors. They will be supported in their responsibility to set agendas for meetings and development of the annual community service project. The high schoolers will be provided individual coaching by the resident mentors who will advise, not devise, on development of strategies and logistics for Ladder events.
3. The Ladder in Schools
Our more experienced Ladder members, with the support and participation of the school age members, will present at least 20 in-school health and wellness programs in local public schools.
The American Academy of Family Medicine has two very well-structured curriculum for healthy behaviors that will be used as the model for the presentations, e.g. “Ready, Set, FIT” and “Tar Wars”.
College and medical students, professionals and intern Ladder members, will be visible models within the Public schools and position the younger members of the Ladder as potential leaders when presenting these health and wellness programs.
We hope that this will further build links with the members of The Ladder, community, local organizations and companies, and potential Ladder members, while strengthening the bonds and impact between Ladder mentee and mentor members.
4. College Application Preparation program
During the course of the school year high school members will be supported with the development and submission of college applications by the professional members. They will learn how to establish a timeline for submission of applications, request recommendation letters and prepare personal essays. We will eventually integrate SAT prep as a part of the Ladder’s foundation of service.