We weren't the qualified, until we were!
The entire premise of 'The Dream Project' is built upon the idea that one needs to "see themselves" in order to have the courage to be themselves. To really realize their full potential. I guess it shouldn't come as a coincidence that the same would be true for us, two young unsuspecting black men, the brainchilds behind it all.
In a recent conversation with Jeremy, my Producer and an all around incredible human, we both gawked at where we found ourselves. When we met, me a guy with a crazy idea to run a summer camp to give little black kids a safe place to be, and him, a freshman at Cincinnati State taking an internship as a camp counselor- things were a little different. Putting myself back in those shoes 10 years ago, I don't know if I simply discounted the impact we were having or if I truly couldn't see it.
With absolutely no funding, a tuition model that would make any businessman cringe, and not-for-nothing, no physical sports acumen, we ran this 12-week camp offering anything from football, soccer, baseball and ballet. "Staffed" by any free college intern and "responsible enough" High School student I could find, we managed upwards of 60 kids at a time. We kept them fed and entertained. We faked family membership cards at the local rec (sorry) to let them swim. We managed field trips every single week including the times over the years we took the kids to overnight camp in Indiana, or to experience New York City. Fun fact about the NYC trip, we couldn't afford a hotel so we all stayed in a hostel. Experiences.
We wouldn't know it then, but that little camp changed lives. There was something to seeing people who looked like you showing up for you daily, speaking your language, challenging you, and being determined to help you grow. There are relationships and successes that we continue to see thrive from that camp up until this day.
Today, I am the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Revolution Dance Theatre. Though it looks a lot different these days with a focused ballet academy and emerging professional performing company in residence at the Aronoff Center - it all started from that camp all those years ago. Today, Jeremy works as a Lead Producer of my second company David Choate Productions. The titles sound fancier, but for us, we're just doing the same thing we've always done. Show up for our people in the way we know we needed people to show up for us.
Over the course of 10 years we never stopped to document what we were doing. All we knew then was how to deal with the younger versions of ourselves, and that's what we did. We didn't know anything about quantifying results, yet now we're creating an original documentary following a new set of kids. We wouldn't have referred to ourselves as "child care professionals" let alone authorities on the matter, yet now, we're aggregating results of our process to create a shareable curriculum with others. This work has grown to something that neither he or I are able to choose to unsee anymore. With us both losing personal obscurity, we were forced to reckon with the impact of what we are doing. Today, we continue to do that in work that reflects our experiences and that celebrate our culture.
Working in this space professionally, having the privilege of having been in multiple board rooms, and knowing several key community leaders, I have seen that people have been trying to figure out how to offer effective programming to African Americans. While people are spending millions of dollars on DEIA training, research, positions, statements and strategy. Researching the latest SEL trends. It was hard for the two young black men who didn't go to college for education to believe that we could offer some advice on the matter.
Yet here we find ourselves taking on The Dream Project to see just how replicable these simple ideas that we've always had could be. How have we been so successful in getting these kids' attention, inspiring achievement in them no matter what activity, and making them believe that they could have the world? I suspect that the answer lies in truly understanding more than just core cultural competencies, but possesing something more. Something magical that comes with the power of effective representation.
This is not to discount the plenty of extremely qualified, dedicated, or degreed professionals, coordinators, professors, scholars, Directors and more. But sometimes the most powerful thing someone needs to see, is themselves.
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