Male educators of color need holistic support.

Profound Gentlemen’s third annual Community Impact Assembly’s design centers on bringing such teachers together from across the country March 9-11 at the PG House, 2701-C Freedom Drive. The nonprofit will focus on character development, content support and community leadership.

“I hate conferences, because often times it’s a stuffy environment, where people talk about all of their accolades and people wear suits and their nametags and their jackets, and they get the tote bags,” said Profound Gentleman co-CEO and Chief Programming Officer Mario Jovan Shaw. “You’re only hearing highlighted things about the great work that is happening. We didn’t want that. We wanted to be the opposite of that, honestly, but our guys wanted us to have a conference. We intentionally called it the Community Impact Assembly—assembly being the closest word to conference without calling it a conference.”

Rather than a weekend of pomp without purpose, PG seeks to create an environment of encouragement.

“What we want to do is uplift the spirit of male educators of color by having them come together to realize that this work is possible and there are people across the board who are living an authentic life just like them, so that boys of color are able to see truly authentic men living out there purpose in life,” Shaw said.

While the weekend does focus on education, it offers insights on other areas of daily life.

“We’re talking about self-awareness skills—even with character development, things like cooking skills—really have the opportunity for them to develop as who they are,” Shaw said.

Teaching professionals are often expected to show empathy to students, something society often discourages in men. Reconciling the two can be difficult.

“Teaching is one of those professions where you are required to be a vulnerable person,” Shaw said. “That’s kind of like the disconnect between men and teaching. We raise men to try and eliminate pain in their life—that weakness and vulnerability are sins. Vulnerability is associated with weakness. When you ask males of color to become teachers, because of the environment that we raise men in American society, vulnerability is usually out the door. There is a disassociation between men and teaching, because of that vulnerability piece. We have to push it.”

The assembly also offers ways for men to improve their teaching skills, but they additionally provide segments focusing on community leadership.

“We want our guys out there as advocates, however they see fit for their community, and more specifically, boys of color,” Shaw said.

For more information:

profoundgentlemen.org/cia

Registration deadline: Feb. 28

Note: Assembly scholarships are available.

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