OUR STORY

Practical, Innovative and Necessary

Opportunity Centers of America, RFAA Foundation, National Opportunity League, and Opportunity Farms is a collection of organizations led by Americans from various geographic locations, demographics, and social and economic statuses devoted to strengthening underserved families.  Each man and organization has pledged to accept his role in restoring families. PTI’s plan is simple: (1) honor our women, (2) train our children, and (3) invest in our communities.  

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Pathways to Independence Trade School will provide knowledge and information generated to develop and refine a series of skills for any young man who wants to learn. Based on a collection of needs important for any community and thriving ecosystem, six (6) paths of focus are in the PTI curriculum. The paths will be housed within cities most fitting based on opportunity and relationships. The first target cities are Atlanta, Georgia, Austin, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Cincinnati, Ohio, Dallas, Texas, and Fort Worth, Texas. 

 

The chosen paths were selected by harnessing a better understanding of the problems they solve and how to implement their use as solutions effectively. Equipping young men in America fully will generate better life experiences for themselves, their families, and the communities they choose to serve and impact. Industry experts guide each path, and students can select as many learning paths as they can handle. Students start with one course, and as they complete the program, they are allowed to explore other systems that may be useful to create a more well-rounded knowledge base for what they hope to achieve. 

 

Perhaps a student completes the ‘food security program and next pursues the ‘technology’ program to meet his goal of creating a more seamless food system within his community using technology to automate some of the supply chain processes. PTI’s goal is to ensure that young men acquire the proper trade education to solve problems in their everyday lives and those of the people they seek to serve.

OUR GOAL

The Current Plan For Black Males

PTI Trade School aims to remove the dark cloud of hopelessness and barriers to success in many Black communities because the current success plan for Black males is critically flawed. They compete against neighborhoods of scarce resources due to years of redlining practices, violence resulting from no hope – no resources – little education, and long-established school-to-prison pipelines.  Policies are imposed to pad the pockets of those investing in the prison industrial complex. Our youth have fallen victim to a system they struggle to overcome, without the proper resources to make them aware of their value and abilities to achieve great things and purposeful life. 

 

The current plan/policies, which have been in existence for the past thirty-five years, work in the following steps:

 

Society introduces Black males to sports at an early age, and when sports fail to fulfill the dreams of wealth, fame and end the generations of hopelessness, it’s either:

  • The Music Industry to the Hustle Game or The Hustle Game to the Music Industry

 

The Hustle Game produces few outcomes, despite all of the environmental, emotional, and mental sacrifices, such as:

  • Jail

  • Death

  • A hard life without true fulfillment and individual growth

 

If Black males are lucky enough to receive a small amount of jail time and return home versus being murdered in the streets, the consequences are:

  • It is being labeled as a convicted felon, which causes the struggle to continue.

  • Due to the continued struggle, they go back to step two, and the process has a higher rate of starting all over again.

 

​The results of the current plan/policies for Black males have a direct correlation to:

  1. Broken families

  2. Poverty-stricken communities

  3. Crime infested  neighborhoods

  4. Environmental trauma

  5. Generations of hopelessness due to lack of access to education and resources

OUR EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The New Plan For Black Males

Pathways To Independence Trade School (P.T.I.) and its collaborative partners theorizes, based on primary data, that P.T.I. will effectively reach communities of color and those with little trust in people, government, and themselves. 

 

Finally, the New Plan for black males is at an early age they are introduced to:

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  1. Self-Effificacy

  2. Consequences 

  3. Ownership

  4. Entrepreneurship

  5. Servanthood

  6. Agriculture 

  7. Transferable Skills 

 

The results of the new plan for black males will produce:

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  1. Stronger Families

  2. Vibrant Community

  3. Safer Neighborhoods

  4. Healthy Minds

  5. Generations of Prosperity

©2020 by PTI Trade School.