A Truly Humbling Experience -- Coming Face-to-Face with the Plight of Very Young Black Men Behind Bars

Brother Greg Crawley, new to Gamma Pi, organized a very successful mentoring visit to a local youth detention facility this past weekend and wrote this dispatch for the blog as a follow-up:

Brother Crawley

The Gamma Pi chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity participated in a united effort to impact the youth in our community. The Joint Fraternal Outreach Project took place this past Saturday, May 21, 8:30am – 2pm, at the Cheltenham Youth Facility (CYF) in Cheltenham, MD. Located in Prince George's County, MD. CYF serves young men awaiting trial or court disposition from Anne Arundel, Prince George's, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties.

Other Greek Fraternities that participated in this event were Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma, and Iota Phi Theta Fraternities, Inc. Unity in the Community” was the theme for this event. Gamma Pi’s mentoring topics were Safe Sex, STD’s, and Pregnancy Prevention. The fraternities organized themselves into 6 integrated teams and presented the various topics to all 130 plus of the young men in the facility.

Fraternity men reaching out

It was very humbling to see the number of youths that really did not understand the concept of family structure, and establishing yourself professionally before bringing children into this world so that you have adequate resources to provide for them. As we listened to a number of testimonials from the young men in the facility it became very evident that many of them have never had a positive male role model in their life to help them to stay on that path to success.

The Brothers of Gamma Pi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity hope that this is just the start of something bigger as we continue to try to reach out to the young black men of our society. They are our future.

                                                              --- by Brother Greg Crawley

Brother Crawley will be providing updated information in the coming days. Click here for updated information on a scheduled TV news report on the project from Prince George's Community TV. CTV sent a crew to cover the event. Click here to listen to Bro. Crawley describe the experience in an audio clip posted on the Gamma Pi web site.


The Men of Gamma Pi 



Different Colors, Different Fraternities, Singular Purpose