The 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project this year celebrates its 31st anniversary, but its founder Miami Congresswoman Frederica Wilson says the seeds of the successful mentoring and drop-out prevention program started when she was an elementary school principal in the 1980s and early 1990s.
As principal of Skyway Elementary School, Wilson recalls seeing young boys having to navigate school and life without strong parental figures or male adult role models, and coming up with an idea. She called up all the men she went to Miami Northwestern Senior High and asked them to come to mentor the children.
“When the men came to the school and began to mentor these boys, right before my eyes they changed,” Wilson told WLRN. “So I put them in little long-sleeved white shirts and neckties and raised them up … and took them on field trips and made them feel special.”
Ten years later, when she ran for the Miami-Dade County School Board and won, she made establishing the then 500 Role Models of Excellence a priority.
Today, more than four decades later, the 500 Role Models has grown to 5000 and Skyway Elementary is now Dr. Frederica S. Wilson/Skyway Elementary.
From NBA Star Udonis Haslem, to NFL star Lester Jean, to Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins, and more, the program has many famous Role Model graduates, which Wilson says demonstrates the power of prevention.
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“People do not understand prevention … Prevention, exposure, lifting up and giving young boys hope,” she said. “Life is about choices. It doesn't matter your zip code. It doesn't matter your family structure or makeup, it matters what you do.”
What started as a project in Miami-Dade County when Wilson was a county school board member, has now expanded across Florida, into Louisiana, Alabama, California — and even the Bahamas.
The reach has been organic, with school district superintendents reaching out to Wilson asking for the program to expand to their city because they know how effective it is.
“The Birmingham School District, which has huge problems calls … and they want the program in Birmingham.” She said. “They found out about us through the U. S. Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, and they want the program in Birmingham.”
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Breakfast was held Mondayat the Miami Beach Convention Center to mark the foundation’s 31 years of existence.
For the future, Wilson wants to see 5000 Role Models expand into every school in Miami-Dade and Broward that’s currently on their waiting list.
“I'm going to be working with the Children's Trust to make sure that the schools are funded properly so that these children can have access to that magical time,” she said. “This is how we save our community.”
If you’d like to get involved, you can call (305) 995-2451 or visit their website here.
