644 Words
Read Time: 2:20 Recently the cornerstone of the F.I.A.T.M. team sat down for a podcast interview on Be Inspired Today. CEO, Kuba Brown, COO, David Layne and Advisory Board President, Yundra Thomas shared about the importance of the first word in F.I.A.T.M. which is Family. Feel comfortable taking a look at it, hitting the like button and leaving a comment. For the sake of this conversation we’re going to take a look into an expanded definition of family as was so eloquently expressed in this interview. dictionary.com describes family as: a group of people or things that are related by common characteristics, features, or properties. Another definition that fits is: a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals. Family. Family is the foundation of F.I.A.T.M.. It’s in essence what makes us, well us. At F.I.A.T.M. we believe you can pick your family that are related to you by common characteristics, attitudes, interests or goals. This means that you can join our family as we unify communities one family at a time. What does that look like? What can that look like? For example, you may have heard of the disparate rumblings in the media regarding inherent tolerations of racial superiority mindsets expressed through, of all places, High School Sports (https://www.pe.com/2021/10/28/after-racism-allegations-temecula-valley-high-making-changes-at-games/) and (https://www.pe.com/2021/09/02/moreno-valley-volleyball-team-racially-harassed-targeted-with-monkey-noises-at-hemet-game/). I share this with you not to shock or polarize you, dear reader. I share this with you to convey that sometimes as a family conversations can get a little complicated. Uncomfortable. Messy. However, I’m a firm believer that on the other side of it is understanding, embracing, acceptance and ultimately at times, love. F.I.A.T.M. has been leading the charge on initiating progressive conversations regarding race, challenging students to level up, mentoring youth, encouraging emerging talent, teaching and training technology, financial literacy, tutoring, athletic excellence and much more since before 2005 in some iteration or another. Think of the landscape of our country in 2005. In looking at Gallup polls (https://news.gallup.com/poll/1687/race-relations.aspx), a 2005 Race Relations Report (https://issuu.com/jcci/docs/05_race_relations_progress_report) and the Immigration debate (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920511421030). Ironically, in 2022 these same or eerily similar conversations are still being had. Albeit in many instances laced with rhetoric. F.I.A.T.M. has been stealthily meeting latent needs in response to these often overlooked topics. We are focused on positively impacting communities by infiltrating often times broken familial dynamics. That can be demonstrated by assisting a young man in obtaining his driving permit and license. Imagine. Or perhaps remember how you felt when you passed your written and driving test. Remember the sense of accomplishment? Freedom. F.I.A.T.M. is consistently in classrooms across various districts on a weekly basis ushering a safe space to express, heal and grow for the youth. Teaching our young men how to treat a young lady appropriately may seem like a no-brainer to you. However, how and when is that taught? Recently on one such school visit a group of young men were throwing rocks at several unsuspecting young ladies. Talk about a teachable moment! Fortunately, F.I.A.T.M. was on campus that day and discussed very openly how and why this behavior is not okay. These are a few examples of tangible ways that F.I.A.T.M. is impacting local communities one family at a time. Next week we’ll be exploring the second word in our tagline, is. I’m serious. We will be discussing what the defintion of is is. If you’re old enough to know that reference, feel comfortable leaving a comment. Next Tuesday, before 10 a.m. the post will be live and ready for you to check out. In the meantime, if you are interested in joining the F.I.A.T.M. family or have questions on how to become involved, feel comfortable emailing me: Jacqui@FIATMGroupInc.org. Byline: Jacqui Dobens is a lover of words, curious bordering nosey, published author, public speaker and recovering sassy shoe addict. She can be reached at: Jacqui@FIATMGroupInc.org.
2 Comments
Times are changing, the world is growing and opportunities are limitless. Families are being challenged in ways that we’ve never seen before because of our ever changing economic and social climates. Now…..more than ever before families, need to pull together and take pride in themselves, individually and as a whole, so that every member of their family can thrive. Pride is a feeling of pleasure from one’s own achievements, of those with whom you are associated and a feeling of justifiable self-respect. As a community, we need to get back to taking pride in our biological families as well as our extended family by embracing that fact that we are all different….but the same. We all have the desire to belong to something or someone, we all want to be loved and appreciated and most importantly, we all want to be proud of who we are and where we come from. Within our communities, we CANNOT be successful if we don’t recognize how important family is. Yes……you may make a lot of money or even a little bit of money but, at the end of the day, we need and want to belong to a family, however you choose to define yours. The statistics regarding divorce, single parent households and youth who are at-risk are painfully high, as a result, we need to take a look at ourselves and decide who we want be as individuals, families and a community and get to the business of being EXACTLY that!! We have to redefine ourselves, change those negative statistics and flourish as a family community!! How do we do that??? I’m so glad you asked, here are a few examples: A.) Be CONSISTENT! B.) Expose children to as many positive experiences as possible C.) Support the children and each other by showing up as much as possible because they love to see your smiling faces D.) Praise and encourage each other and the children when they do well to encourage positive behavior E.) When our loved ones are engaged in negative or inappropriate behavior, try to correct the behavior not CONDONE or make excuses for it. We need to show interest or concern in each other’s well being from the youngest to the oldest in our family and community. The older generations helped to make us who we are and the younger generation is our future. Our young people should reflect what we have taught and instilled in them. We all have busy lives and schedules but we should never be too busy to take time out and build stronger family ties. We ask you now, to take pride in your family, biological or extended by respecting yourselves as well as one another. Always talk out your differences with respect and continue to be an example to your children and those around you. It is important to act with integrity and teach our younger generation that their actions can and will bring consequences. In order for our children to grow and understand life they need to experience those consequences and our job is to help them and each other to stop making the same mistakes over and over again. United we stand and divided we fall, let’s work together to change that expression to “united we stand so that we will not fall”. When we see ours brothers and sisters down, let’s not kick them while they’re down but pick them back up instead. We need to restore our family ties and family values that have been tossed away like trash and take pride and cherish our families because at the end of each day…….. Family Is All That Matters!!
By WENONA JOHNSON |
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