Street Soldiers - Omega's 25th Anniversary Celebration

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Omega's 25th Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, October 25, 2012 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. For more information please contact Development Director Iris Fluellen at (415) 826-8624 or ifluellen@street-soldiers.org

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It's the silver anniversary of the Omega Boys Club. 25 years. A whole quarter of a century. It's really hard to believe--the time has gone by so fast. What can I say? How can I fit 25 years into a few paragraphs? One thing for sure I do know though--it's definitely time to celebrate! When Omega opened its doors in February of 1987 to 15 young people from the streets of San Francisco, we had no idea that it would become the renowned life--saving program that it is today. Back then, something seemed to be happening every day. The drugs, the gangs, the turf, the funerals--we had enough of it and we knew that something had to be done. Omega was that something.

I was a public school teacher back then and the violence had spilled over into my own classroom. I remember one young man in particular who was killed in a turf war between two neighborhoods. He was in my math class one day and dead the next. I couldn't even go to his funeral--I was too much in shock. Unfortunately, he wasn't the last one I got horror stories about. I only had the kids for a few hours a day. The streets had them the rest. I needed more time with them.

So on February 26, 1987, the Omega Boys Club opened its doors to my students and their friends. Jack Jacqua and I weren't even sure they would show up. But they came and they stayed. And then more came and more stayed. "Alive and Free... and Educated" became their motto. Beating the streets became their goal. But could we--and they--really do it? 25 years later, the answer is a resounding YES! YES! YES!

YOU WANT NUMBERS?

More than 10,000 young people alive and free in the Bay Area
163 college graduates (176 by spring 2012)
95% college retention rate for the past six years
32 alumni with post--graduate degrees
Nearly 4,000 people trained in the Alive & Free Prescription
1,177 faculty & school staff trained and violence reduced at 17 adopted schools, impacting more than 15,000 students
More than 115,000 people heard the Alive & Free message in presentations & workshops
24 cities replicating the Alive & Free Prescription and Omega--like programs across the U.S., as well as South Africa, Thailand, and Canada
Numerous awards and citations (see appendix)

AND MORE--

Award-winning Street Soldiers Radio call-in program has been preventing violence and giving communities a voice for 20 years, and can be watched live at www.streetsoldiersradio.org.
Street Soldiers National Consortium members impacting their communities with Omega-like programs that are replicating the Alive & Free Prescription in 20 cities throughout California, Illinois, Washington, Maryland, Nebraska, South Africa, Thailand and Canada.
Alive & Free Movement launched in Birmingham, AL in 2006 with Omega's first national conference "Back to Birmingham--The Movement Starts Again--Stop the Violence in Our Communities." See appendix for timeline of the Movement.
Omega's Alive & Free Prescription adopted by the City of San Francisco in 2008 as its uniform violence prevention philosophy.
Omega's method informed best practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention), the US Surgeon General (Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General), the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Barriers and Promising Approaches to Workforce and Youth Development for Young Offenders) and the California Psychological Association (The Disease of Violence – A NEW Public Health Model).
Dr. Marshall's book Street Soldier: One Man's Struggle to Save a Generation, One Life at a Time first published in 1996, with a 5th edition published in 2010.
Award-winning documentary Street Soldiers narrated by Danny Glover premiered nationwide on PBS in 1997 and local PBS affiliate KQED in 1998.
U.S. State Department brought Dr. Marshall to Nigeria, Canada, Haiti and South Africa to help combat youth violence in those countries.
Thai Government brought Dr. Marshall to Thailand to help combat youth violence there.

But milestones and numbers and awards aren't the full story. For me they aren't even the best part of the story. It's the human and personal impact that Omega has had that's most satisfying to me. It's a young person in Haiti I met on my visit there being inspired to stay "Alive and Free" because she watched a video of a Tuesday night at Omega. It's taking a call on Sunday night on the Street Soldiers radio show from someone who's reaching out for help. It's a community under siege calling Omega asking us to help them with the violence in their neighborhoods. It's the Consortium retreats and the national Alive & Free conferences where street soldiers from around the world come together to learn how to stop the violence. It's a young man sitting in a South African juvenile jail who tells me in broken English: "Dr. Marshall, I want to stay Alive and Free. Thank you for coming here." It's the wall of fame at the Omega Boys Club--pictures of all the college graduates, many of whom are the first in their families to go the college and obtain a college degree. It's all the Tuesday nights at Omega--1,300 of them--and the Tuesday nights yet to come.

So yes, it's time to celebrate. Time to look back and reflect on all that we've been able to achieve--and look forward to how much more we're going to do. We've gone from ‘the street corners of San Francisco to the four corners of the world.' It extremely gratifying to know that we've been able to make good on the commitment we made twenty-five years ago. Our guiding principle--"The more you know, the more you owe"--has served us well. The ancestors are smiling.

Bring on the next twenty-five.

Joseph Marshall, Ph.D.
Executive Director and Co-Founder

Appendix

AWARDS

Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation
Use Your Life Award from Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network
Essence Award honoring outstanding contributions by African American Men from Essence Magazine
Ashoka Fellow--international organization of social entrepreneurs creating systemic social change
Community Leadership Award from The San Francisco Foundation
Leadership Award from the Children's Defense Fund
Jefferson Award for Public Service
Congressional Freedom Works Award
White House salute for success in fighting drugs and crime in the community
Exemplary Community Leadership Award for Excellence in Radio Broadcasting from the California Broadcasters Association

THE ALIVE & FREE MOVEMENT TIMELINE

2006 -- Alive & Free Movement launched in Birmingham, AL with Omega's first national conference "Back to Birmingham--The Movement Starts Again--Stop the Violence in Our Communities."

2007 -- Alive & Free Movement launched in Cape Town, South Africa.

2008 -- Alive & Free National Conference in held in Baltimore, MD.

2010 -- Alive & Free Movement launched in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

2010 -- Alive & Free National Conference held in Seattle, WA.

2011 -- Alive & Free Movement launched in Queensland, Canada.

2011 -- Alive & Free Richmond is a partnership between Omega, the City of Richmond and The California Endowment building the capacity of violence prevention efforts in Richmond, CA.

2011 -- Alive & Free Berkeley is a coalition of educators, youth providers and clergy working cooperatively to provide at--risk youth opportunities for successful lives in Berkeley, CA.

2012 -- Alive & Free National Conference to be held in Sacramento, CA.