The Ever Forward Club is A mentor-led, year-long youth-development and mentoring program for young men in grades six through twelve. The organization’s signature program, the Club provides an environment for young men to navigate life challenges and human emotions they are often not given the space, or the tools, to do so safely.
What is the structure?
Weekly after school meetings at a school site
Each Club is led by a male mentor at the school
We create a safe space for youth to be their true selves without any judgement in a fun environment
Members develop into a strong community of males who are able to be vulnerable and support each other
Rites of passages, local college visits, fundraising, and optional enrichment experiences
Where it all began…
Ever Forward founder Ashanti Branch started the first Ever Forward Club in 2004 at San Lorenzo High School. While teaching mathematics, Branch observed the young men of color in his classes moving backward academically. After inviting a group of these students to have lunch with him once a week to teach him to be a better teacher, these young men began to reveal that being smart was perceived as being “uncool,” and that challenges in their personal life kept them from making school a priority.
Branch decided to serve these young men as a mentor, and launched the first Ever Forward Club as a support program where at-risk young men could gather over lunch in a mentor-led safe environment, process emotions, and sustain each other through their struggles.
For a decade, Branch perfected the Ever Forward Club model and expanded slowly to more schools. Seeing the need to reach more schools and students with the tools, support, and structure that Ever Forward had developed to allow young men a safe place to openly share their emotions and build character, Branch left his job at an Assistant Principal in the Oakland Unified School District in August 2016 to dedicate himself full-time to building out Ever Forward’s Clubs and Programs.