The Support Group, a youth-empowering organization based in Chicago, facilitated a large meal on February 27, called “Lunch with a Leader”. The event gave young people the opportunity to interact and have lunch with industry leaders in various industries. There were several different schools and major companies present.
What is so important about this Lunch with a Leader is that young people from diverse backgrounds are beginning to see the different types of paths one can take in life. Some of the youth that day left with a greater understanding of how the world works and that is a wonderful thing.
Lunch With Leaders
Lunch with a Leader is one of the greatest opportunities an organization can present to its young people. With this opportunity, youth get to talk to and ask questions with people that are deep in their careers already. For example, if a young person is currently thinking about acquiring a degree in business, there were many CEOs and founders of organizations there at the lunch on Monday. Not only were these leaders in distinguished roles at their company or organization, they were diverse as well, with participants that were female, LGBT, and people of color.
Diversity and Representation
There were Black, brown, and female leaders and so many more marginalized identities present for the Lunch with a Leader.
What this means is that there were real-life examples of marginalized identities becoming successful in the real world on display. This is very important because certain identities are simply unseen when it comes to the corporate world. Even with the greater push by major companies for more diversification within the workplace, the work isn’t done.
With all of that in mind, having young Black and brown teens see that they too could also be successful and break past the odds can be very inspiring for them. Ultimately, this is what Lunch with a Leader is about. It’s about the proliferation of Black and brown success. Lunch with a Leader provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet people they would never have had the chance to meet before. The support group is seeking to create these types of interactions more often so they need all the support they can get.
The Support Group
The Support Group is a not-for-profit youth empowerment organization based in Chicago. They have been operating for over 30 years and they have helped so many different people within the city of Chicago. Founder Bennie Henry and his family have been fighting to continue to support young people for so long that three generations of the Henry family are involved in this grand project. They do Lunch with a Leader every year, with major corporations like McDonald’s, ABC, BET, and FedEx show up to help support young people. They have ambassador programs, basketball programs, and more.
The most important part of the organization is its outreach and the schools they have access to. Because of all the work Bennie Henry and his family have done, they are able to get many schools to come to things like Lunch with a Leader.
“The Support Group’s Lunch with a Leader has reached over 2000 students across the Chicago Public School system. Past schools include Whitney Young HS, Morgan Park HS, Julian HS, Hyde Park Academy HS, Brooks College Prep, South Shore International HS, Kenwood Academy, Gary Comer, Prosser HS, and many more,” according to The Support Group’s website.
The Support Group Is Great
All in all, the Lunch with a Leader that happened Monday is just one of many great things the Support Group does to help young people. Both Bennie Henry and his family are dedicated to the empowerment of young people within the city of Chicago. Not only that, but there is a push from the founder to make sure that the organization is a multi-generational project.
What this means is that The Support Group puts a lot of emphasis on making sure the younger generations of faculty have a say in what goes on. “I am mostly trying to step back and say nothing. We have a lot of younger folks stepping up and I feel comfortable letting them run it,” stated Bennie Henry.
One of the faculty members stated, “From first being a student to an instructor, I want to say I am grateful to first have the opportunity to sit in a chair and be a student. To learn the curriculum, and now I am able to teach the curriculum and add on the things I have been through in life, so it’s like a win is a win.”
The Support Group is an organization that has been doing this work for over 30 years and continues to support and empower young people to follow their dreams. Organizations like The Support Group are what the world needs to help push young people into the future.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources:
Diligent: Corporate Diversity and Inclusion: What Is It and How Can You Achieve It?
Great Place To Work: Why Is Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace Important?
Interview: Bennie Henry on February 27, 2023
Interview: The Support Group Team on February 27, 2023
The Support Group: Lunch With a Leader
All images courtesy of The Support Group
