Teenagers from around the Bay Area come to
Dogpatch-based Omega Boys Club to get a second chance at an education.
But while the nonprofit is housed in a San Francisco Unified School
District building, Omega is not your typical school. “What happens in
here does not look like what happens in another classroom,” said
Deborah Estell, Omega’s Coordinator. “What happens here is magic.”
The
magic to which Estell refers consists of the Omega Leadership Academy,
a comprehensive program that includes a non-violence curriculum,
academic courses and a college scholarship fund.
Founded
by Joseph E. Marshall, a former middle school administrator with a
doctorate in psychology, and Jack Jacqua, a school counselor, the Omega
Boys Club’s goal is to keep kids “alive and free from violence” so they
can “build positive lives and move into contributing roles in
society.” Marshal and Jacqua believe that whether students are
directly involved in gangs or just surrounded by disruptive behavior,
urban violence prevents them from reaching their academic potential.
According to Jack Soares, Omega’s Communications Director, Omega “aims
to give back to kids the education they lost to violence.”
Contrary
to its name, Omega serves both boys and girl. Students take evening
courses in math and literature, which are designed to help them
graduate from high school or obtain their General Education Degree
(GED). Omega serves 300 students annually; in its two decade-plus
years of operation, every student who’s completed the Leadership
Academy has received their diploma or GED.
The
Omega Scholarship Fund provides financial support to enable low-income
students to attend college. “Many of these kids are the first in their
families to graduate from high school, let alone college,” said
Soares.
Amanda Jones, 20, is
one of the students who benefited from an Omega scholarship. Growing up
in West Oakland, Jones used drugs, engaged in violent behavior, and was
surrounded by friends that she said “were going nowhere.” Jones was
smart but didn’t see college in her future. “I just didn’t have any
confidence in myself to succeed,” she said. “I figured I was doomed.”
But she wasn’t; Jones just finished her first year at Tennessee State
University with a 3.2 grade point average.
In
addition to academic courses, Academy students participate in “family
meetings” that provide a safe space for them to grapple with complex
personal issues. Students are taught how to become civic leaders, and
provided with ways to incorporate non-violence into their daily lives.
Rather than seeing violence as a social problem, Omega treats the
problem as a virus that overtakes an individual. “We think of violence
as a disease,” said Soares. “And there’s a cure for that disease.”
Omega’s cure for violence is the Alive and Free Violence Prevention
program, which is taught both within the Academy and through training
workshops designed for educators.
Participants
learn the risk factors for contracting the violence virus, and ways to
purge the infection from their system. The program teaches new ways of
living based on respect and authentic relationships. In its 21-year
history only one student who’s completed the program has died of
violence, and in that case it was self-inflicted. “It works,” said
Soares.
If Omega Boys Club had
a poster child, it’d be Andre Aikins. Aikins grew up in Oakland and
found himself entangled in the world of gangs and violence. His tough
attitude and disinterest in education got him kicked out of numerous
public schools. But his life changed when he met Marshall at a high
school assembly. Aikins was skeptical but intrigued by Marshall’s
refrain of “If you knew what I knew, you wouldn’t do what you do.”
Aikins confronted Marshall after the assembly and demanded to know what
he meant. Marshall said he’d show him, and brought Aikins to Omega.
Shortly
after, Aikins became a regular participant, and with the help of the
Academy, he received his GED and attended college on an Omega
scholarship. After graduating with a degree in Math Education, Aikins
got a job teaching at a middle school that’d kicked him out years
before, and eventually became the school’s vice principal. Today
Aikins is Omega’s Operations Manager.
Aikins
wears crisp, white sneakers and thin-framed glasses. His tattoos peek
out of a tucked-in polo shirt. “I wouldn’t have the life I have now if
it weren’t for Omega,” he said. “I had to give back in the way it was
given to me.” Aikins isn’t the only one to stay loyal to the program;
two other former students also serve on the board.
What
began as a refuge for Bay Area youth has turned into a worldwide
network. Omega students, who without the nonprofit’s intervention might
never have left Northern California, are now scattered across the
country, attending college and spreading the message of non-violence.
Later this year, Marshall will be heading to South Africa to
hand-deliver his prescription to that country’s ailing school
districts.
