I truly feel that L.E.A.D. is doing God’s will as an organization planted in Atlanta. It is evident in the fruit that we bear through young African-American males.
We have been serving Atlanta with excellence since 2007. Our mission remains the same, to empower an at-risk generation to lead and transform their city of Atlanta. Our vision remains the same that our L.E.A.D. Ambassadors will lead their city of Atlanta to lead the world. We still accomplish this through a sport that is considered America’s favorite pastime – baseball.
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| L.E.A.D. Ambassadors with Governor Nathan Deal |
To be clear, L.E.A.D. scouts out the counted out. In case you haven’t noticed, society has pretty much written you off. Why do I say that? I say that because we live in a time where it’s more profitable to build prisons than to invest in schools. That’s really sad, but you can change that and you’re going to need my help. We don’t go into schools and cherry pick the top all around students. All you need to have is a minimal desire to play baseball and a passion for living a life of significance.
The baseball field is where the Ambassadors practice their core values the most. Academic excellence for the Ambassadors should be a no brainer starting with excellent attendance and behavior in school. Civic responsibility is nurtured now to prepare Ambassadors to truly lead this city and leadership is all about influence – nothing more, nothing less. It’s going to take financial resources to lead Atlanta and the Ambassadors will develop skills weekly that will prepare them to be gainfully employed when they graduate from college.
As we prepare for our fall Legacy League that will produce twenty five Ambassadors, here are three things that I’m most excited about.
1. Ambassadors will coach themselves
We will have sixty Leaders in the Legacy League competing for twenty five coveted Ambassadors slots. We will only have two coaches on staff by choice. Ambassadors know how to lead themselves as well as possess the ability to work with others. When core values are in place, learning to hit and throw a ball correctly to earn a college scholarship won’t be difficult at all. Young men that lack core values will be removed quickly because we don’t have time to force young men to value this once in a lifetime opportunity.
It’s considered an innate action for youth coaches to yell and scream to get results from their players. With only two coaches on staff this fall, we’re looking for Leaders who can hold each other accountable based on our standards and expectations. We don’t have perfect kids in our program yet they all have an awareness of core values. From personal experience as a child, I can attest that when their is a lack of accountability, young men stop growing in the positive direction.
3. Ambassadors will lead their schools
L.E.A.D. will have twenty five Ambassadors within eight Atlanta Public Schools (APS) high schools in 2014-15. They will all be charged to lead their schools since we are training them weekly in character development. Their character development playbook will be Habitudes by Dr. Tim Elmore. This is the same character training that the San Francisco Giants, University of Alabama and University of Georgia use to name a few. L.E.A.D. is not a “good for you” organization so it is within the school buildings that our Ambassadors will be able to lead the way to show that L.E.A.D. is good for APS and good for Atlanta.
No need to tell me that you’re in on this challenge. You must show me – your consistent, committed actions will tell me all I need to know about you.
I’m here scouting for Ambassadors- period.
Now let’s go!