OMEGA PSI PHI FRATERNITY, INC.
ZETA CHI CHAPTER - FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
Lamplighters Male Youth Mentorship Program
Brothers, Parents and Lampligthers pose for a group photo at the conclusion of the Parent Orientation Workshop.
Bro. Brian Johnson demonstrated the Healing Circle with Parents and Lamplighters during the Parent Orientation. The purpose of the Healing Cirlce is to allow Lamplighters a channel to verbally communicate their thoughts to the group.
The Lamp Lighters were presented with a great educational opportunity to listen and learn a history account of the Tuskegee Airmen. Mr. Leo Gray – former Tuskegee Airman provided the Lamp Lighters with a firsthand life experience.
Brothers, Parents and Lampligthers pose for a group photo at the conclusion of the Parent Orientation Workshop.
Program Overview:
The Lamp Lighters Club of Ft. Lauderdale is a mentorship program operated by the Zeta Chi Chapter
of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. For the upcoming year, the program will offer each the following:
1. Semi-monthly Youth Meetings: Youth will meet twice per month (1st and 3rd Saturdays) for the
whole school year (October through June). Sessions will address a diverse list of topics that we
feel are important to enhance the participants’ development as young Black men. Guest
speakers (particularly members of Zeta Chi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.) will be
utilized to motivate participants and expose them to positive role models who have attained
various life achievements in spite of personal and/or family obstacles.
2. Experiential and fun field trips: We will continue to engage the participants in field trips and
other experiential activities that will allow them to have fun and/or reinforce a social skill or
lessons covered in group sessions.
3. Achievement Motivation Activities: The members of the Zeta Chi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity, Inc. will continue to encourage, motivate, and assist youth to pursue high goals. To
this end, we will continue to monitor school performance (report cards) and reward
achievement with prizes, specific events to celebrate individual and group achievements, and
other rewards. This year, high school seniors who participate in the program and meet
standards of achievement will be recommended for priority consideration for the annual
scholarships that the chapter provides to students entering college next year.
4. Computer Assisted Tutorial Services: Since it will be required that all program participants
become members of the Nan Knox Boys and Girls Club, youth will be provided access to the
tutorial and other services offered at the club. Because we anticipate a number of high school
seniors as return or new participants, we will seek to secure preparation services for the ACT
and SAT college entrance exams.
5. Mentorship Activities: we are deferring the individual/small group mentoring strategy until
such time that a sufficient number of Brothers are secured and approved to serve as mentors.
We will recognize and continue to encourage the bonds between certain brothers and protégés
that were formed last term. However, we will choose to emphasize group mentorship rather
than individual assignments in the upcoming term.
Location:
Program sessions take place at the Nan Knox Boys and Girls Club located at 832 NW 2nd Street in
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311.
Eligibility Criteria:
The Lamp Lighters Club of Ft. Lauderdale targets up to 25 young Black males ages 11-17 (18 year
olds allowed if still enrolled in local school system). Youth must be members of the Nan Knox Boys
and Girls Club, a student in the Broward County School system, and able to follow the rules,
principles, and code of conduct that govern participation in the program.
Chairman
Bro. Tyrri McCloud
Lamplighters Male Mentorship Program
As a young teenager Mr. McCloud was very vocal in expressing the need for the Zeta Chi Chapter – Fort Lauderdale, Florida to have a male mentorship program to service Broward County. As a youth he acknowledged there was the Kappa’s Youth League and Alpha’s Men of the Tomorrow in existence in Broward County, but did not feel the alternatives were indicative and consistent to what he experienced growing up as a young youth in the presence of Omega Men. Still young and spirited, he persistently voiced and challenged his uncle Brother Dorsey Miller III who served as the Basileus of the chapter at that time. Brother Miller III who became thoroughly convinced that the chapter and the Broward County Community would be better served to have a male mentorship program. The Zeta Chi Chapter initiated a Lamplighter Male Mentorship Program in the month and year of January 2008. The program has thrived for the past seven years under the direct leadership of Brother Brian Johnson – Immediate Past Chairperson and with the commitment of a committee of Brothers. The program is structured to provide group and one-on-one mentorship for male youths from junior high to senior high school, and to date has a 100% senior high school graduation rate for all male youths that have completed the mentorship program. Mr. McCloud seated centered in the group photo above not only helped and pioneered the chapter’s male mentorship program, he is a graduate mentee of the program himself and was a recipient of a $1,000.00 college scholarship given to each male youth mentee that completes the mentorship program and attends a college or university. He attended and graduated from Florida A&M University earning a B.S. Degree and works professionally as an Educator with Broward County Schools. Most recently, he is now known as Brother Tyrri McCloud initiated as a new member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Fall ‘2015 - Zeta Chi Chapter, and serves as the newly appointed Chairperson of the Lamplighters Male Mentorship Program.
