News

Black History Month has so many meaningful lessons for the youth we support, including the fact that so much of that history involves rising over adversity and overcoming obstacles to success. We are doing many things this month that allow our African-American students to see that strong individuals— who look like they do and have faced similar challenges—have successfully led, invented, created, composed, written, and changed the course of history.

This year’s national theme for Black History Month is “African Americans in Times of War.” For the entire month, Biondi School students are learning about and honoring the African Americans who protect our country. That history came to life when African-American veterans from the Samuel H. Dow American Legion 1017 Post visited the school. They engaged our students and offered words of encouragement as they talked about their experiences in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf.

Black History Month is also being marked by other Rising Ground programs. Our Residential Treatment Center youth have ongoing presentations and community service projects. At Seabury Day Care Center, our preschoolers put on their Annual Black History Show. The Soundview Family Resource Center joins with the Soundview Community Partnership Program for a family-friendly Black History Month celebration in the Bronx.

Black History Month matters because it helps instill pride in our students, and demonstrates what hope is: the belief that the future will be better, and that they have to power to make it so. But the real lesson is that black history matters every day. It shouldn’t be ignored the rest of the year.