'Gentlemen on Move' Program Receives Statewide Multicultural Award

A COE professor’s mentoring program, aimed at developing and nurturing academic and social excellence in young African-American males, has received a statewide multicultural award.

"Gentlemen on the Move," a program developed by Deryl Bailey, an assistant professor of counseling and human development services, was named the 2004 Multicultural Program of the Year by the Georgia chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (GA-NAME).

About 40 Athens area black middle and high school students participate in Gentlemen on the Move, which was initiated by Bailey a decade ago when he was a counselor in a North Carolina high school. Every Saturday, the boys and their parents meet on the UGA campus to study and to work on social skills. Teachers from UGA and Clarke County schools volunteer as tutors.

The program has received growing recognition over the past few years and Bailey received a $10,000 grant from the state Board of Regents last May as one of six programs in the state designed to motivate African-American males to stay in school and to steer them toward college.

Black males are all but disappearing from Georgia's high schools and colleges, and state officials want to reverse the disturbing trend.

While college-age African-American males constitute 16 percent of the state's population, they make up only 7.2 percent of the students enrolled in Georgia's public colleges and universities. Black females are 15 percent of the student population.

In 1997, 23.5 percent of the African-American males who graduated from Georgia high schools went on to college in the state. By 2001, that percentage had dropped to 20.8.

Many boys in the program have had no male role models before joining Gentlemen on the Move. Many are from single-parent homes. The program tries to fill a void left by the schools, which have very few African-American men as teachers.

“Students who have a positive relationship with teachers do well academically,” Bailey said. “For black male students, that often doesn't exist.”

Last fall, Bailey was invited to speak about the program at two national educational conferences in Washington, D.C. – Double the Numbers: Post Secondary Attainment and Underrepresented Youth, sponsored  the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellong Foundation; and the Congressional Black Caucus’ 33rd Annual Legislative Conference.

The Multicultural Program Award will be presented to Bailey at GA-NAME’s annual conference on Saturday, March 13 in Peachtree City.

GA-NAME brings together individuals and groups with an interest in multicultural education from all levels of education, different academic disciplines and from diverse educational institutions and occupations. Educators from preschool through higher education and representatives from business and communities comprise GA-NAME's membership.
 
Monday, March 8, 2004
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
PHOTOS: Allen Sullivan/Courtesy of The Athens Banner-Herald
CONTACT: Deryl Bailey, 706/583-0126, dbailey@coe.uga.edu