Organizational History and Uniqueness:

UMOJA was formed in 1994 and during the first year, our focus and concentration was working with gangs and very distressful kids that couldn’t function in a normal classroom situation. Now we pride ourselves in working with three types of kids, and these kids the forge relationships:

Natural Leaders

Trouble Children

Children that fall between both of these categories

Through this process, the kids get a better understanding that all kids share like experiences and situation just on different levels based on religious or socio-economic conditions.

Organization Experience:

Our experience in dealing with children/young adults is varied. The members of our organization have vast amounts of experiences ranging from being police officers, advocates, intervention specialists, ministers, business owners, etc. We have several years of experience among our membership, that range from five years to twenty five years, in working with youth of all ethnicities.

Personnel:

Our organization is unique because there are no paid staff members, with the exception of our site directors. We share in responsibilities and enjoy rehabilitating our kids and their problems. We have 25 members in our organization. Each site director has extensive experience working with students with behavioral problems.

Management Staff:

UMOJA has a Program Director, Luther Perry, and we contract our administrative duties to private secretaries. Each site director is trained in the curriculums that are taught to our students at each site. In additional each site director is encouraged to attend school training sessions offered to the staff. All of our site directors are clear on school policies and procedures and support them.