The 'Learn My History Children's Network' wants to get kids between 8 and 17 connected with mentors in the local community.
SARASOTA, Fla. — A new mentoring program for children launched in Sarasota on Monday.
The Learn My History Children's Network wants to get kids between 8 and 17 connected with mentors in the local community.
Mentors from different professional backgrounds would be matched with the kids to guide them on things like college and career aspirations.
"We want to give them (children) more opportunities to be exposed to different things, different careers and also the pitfalls that may happen to them if they don't decide what they want to do and can go for it and be encouraged to do so," Ronnique Hawkins said, founder of Learn My History Foundation
The launch of the foundation was set to coincide with what should have been Emmett Till's 81st birthday.
Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 over false claims of whistling at a white woman.
Hawkins said she worked on a movie about Till and hoped to honor him by continuing to teach about him through the foundation's works.
"It's important to keep his name alive," she said. "I think it's very important for the youth of all cultures to know about Emmett because he was an American child."
"To know that their lives matter, all of their lives matter, and particularly for the African-American, there are so many targets and we don't want them to fall...
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