ATLANTA — A unique conference, aimed at reaching at-risk youth and celebrating Black men who have overcome similar obstacles, is coming to metro Atlanta.
The 2023 Treasure Hunt Conference is bringing together a collective of men to share strategies. Organizers said they know this process works because it’s already helped them get Carver STEAM Academy off the state's watchlist.
Now, they’re hoping to take the strategies beyond the school’s walls – out into the community.
“I actually moved to Atlanta from New York City to take over one of the toughest schools in Atlanta, in Georgia. High poverty rate, lots of crime, it was really a tough place to be,” said Yusuf Muhammad, referring to The STEAM Academy at Carver.
When Muhammad first became the principal of the school, it was on the state’s low-performance watchlist. However, after six years of targeted outreach, Muhammad said they turned the school around, removing it from the state’s list, increasing the school’s graduation rate and transforming children’s lives.
“What we did was we motivated them. We did things out of the ordinary, we took kids camping, we had to leave school grounds for opportunities that they never had before,” Muhammad added.
He also said addressing individual student barriers like not having a safe place to sleep or having to work to help support their families, helped them reach more children. And during the upcoming inaugural 2023 Treasure Hunt Conference, the group hopes to show parents and community groups similar strategies can work at other schools too.
"We need our young people to understand that there's greatness within them... We believe that every student has God-given treasures within them, they just might need an adult to help them pull that out," Fine Tune 2023 Treasure Hunt Organizer Rita Williams said.
Williams said knowledge is power and it’s not only about academic standards but also self-awareness. So, they’ve arranged for a panel of Black men to speak about how they’ve overcome obstacles to help connect with the children.
“We just believe that if we help our young people understand who they are, if we help them to discover their gifts and talents in different ways so that they can use them besides what maybe someone in the streets, so to speak, is telling them how to use them. We believe we can help change the narrative,” Williams said.
For more details about how you can register to attend the conference, click here.