MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT...Ingrid Johnson!

Expect Excellence best describes the (CAAP) Council of African American Parents' anticipation of its student scholars.  Our program is a college preparatory schema based solely in academics, testing prep, study skills, cultural enrichment, self-awareness and confidence building from 6th through 12th grade.  Some of our students begin taking the SAT as early as 11 years of age.  UC Berkeley has labeled our program as a national model parents program.

With this kind of endorsement, we can duplicate our work throughout California and across the country in areas where help is needed  the most.  We are an organization made up of concerned parents, volunteers, scholars, corporate executives, community leaders, intellectuals, academics and entrepreneurs who collectively work as a village to expose and maximize educational opportunities for our children.  There is no doubt that they are our future and subsequent leaders of tomorrow, and so it remains imperative that we prepare them to thrive at the global center stage of education, housing, employment and politics.  Vernon Jordan Jr., Washington DC lawyer, power broker, delegate to President Lyndon B. Johnson and confidant to President Bill Clinton, said in his commencement address at his alma mater, Howard University:

"If you stand on the shoulders of others, you have a reciprocal responsibility to live your life so that others may stand on your shoulders.  It's the quid pro quo of life."

Vernon Jordan went on to say:

"We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give."

 This statement poses important and tough  questions. What do we owe? What is our responsibility beyond our immediate selves?  Are we looking to leave an important legacy?  Ask yourself. Ask your families.  Ask the mega-conglomerates that you work for and manage. Where do they stand? I ask you this because ladies and gentlemen, we are in a race against time. Our children are at stake. 

So it is when we embrace the meaning of quid pro quo, "an exchange of one thing for another, by mutual agreement," we immediately understand that there are no free rides and there is no escaping.  There is only Acknowledgment, Agreement, and Action.  We call it the Triple A Threat.  Acknowledgment that the profound power of education has somehow lost is center stage role in underserved, underrepresented communities; Agreement that we are one society who will either benefit from collaboration and partnership or be utterly tormented by the social and economic fallout of a growing population of hopelessness;  Action by those of us empowered by position and influence to call on one another to stand up and make a difference.

CAAP's participation in the UCLA Urban Collaborative is an outstanding example of the Triple A. Threat.  The Urban Collaborative flagship early academic outreach program PALS or Personal Academic Learning System, has become a central component in our strategy to make a difference in the lives of children that statistics and research repeatedly prove are culturally disadvantaged and thus painfully underrepresented at institutions of higher learning. There are others who are part of the Triple A Threat.  To name a few USC, California State University, Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Loyola Marymount University, The University of California Office of the President, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Tech, the NAACP, the College Board, Dean Witter, SCE (Southern California Edison) and a host of primary school, college and university administrators who work diligently to answer the call to Action.  This is only a partial listing but I think you're getting the picture here.

The Legacy Roundtable Collaborative LRC is a recently developed arm of the CAAP organization.  It is the brainchild of veteran educator/activist Chuck Moore of Moore Educational Services and myself.  LRC's focus is to specifically increase college readiness and attendance rates of students and in particular African American males, to California post-secondary institutions and vocational programs.  We have collaborated with the best, brightest and most committed academic area leaders to develop cutting-edge curriculum that is designed to have an all-inclusive measurable impact on impressionable and fragile middle school boys who are full of potential.  We have gained phenomenal support among the hierarchy of the academic and corporate world with who we have partnered. Our most recent effort was incredibly successful Summer Algebra Academy for middle school boys this past July.

Through CAAP programs, students have gone on to colleges and universities across the country and abroad from Historical Black Colleges and Universities like Howard University, Spelman and Moorehouse Colleges to M.I.T., Yale, and Princeton.  They've flourished in medical school, law school and prestigious graduate programs.  However. one of the most important Actions they take is coming back and speaking to our younger students.  They personally help us shepherd our 12th graders into college.  I call it the "full circle" effect and a superior example of Vernon Jordan's reference to quid pro quo.  Nearly 400 students who are now college graduates have benefited from our program but we can do more.  Why not 1000 or 5000 students?  However, we need help.  We need you.

You can help by becoming a member of CAAP and establish your own legacy by bringing your expertise, education and professional experience to the table.  No matter what your cultural background is we need you!  Your company can become a partner and create a legacy where it is so greatly needed.  We need your help with everything from printing documents to award scholarships to postage for critical mailing pieces.  We need executives and corporate representatives to come out and inspire our students by speaking to then.  We need major donors and access to grants to properly fund our programs.  We need permanent office space.  We need to staff positions so we can expand our services and appropriately manage them. We need sponsors for students for our annual college tours.  Our tours of California Universities, HBCU Historical Black Colleges and Universities in the South and our East Coast College tours are invaluable experiences for our students but some are not able to afford the costs.  We want them all to be able to visit these colleges and know that Howard and Harvard are possible!  We want to award larger and more scholarships to our graduating seniors and ultimately award 4 year scholarships to deserving students.  We can't do it alone.

"Every race has a soul and the soul of that race finds expression in its institutions, and to kill those institutions is to kill the soul... No people can profit or be helped under institutions which are not the outcome of their own character."

                                                                                               Edward Blyden (1903)

We are one society.  We must all take responsibility to make a difference by joining forces to honor the principles of the Triple A Threat.  Acknowledgment, Agreement, and Action.  Partner with us.  CAAP is a non -profit organization.

Sincerely,

Ingrid Johnson
President, Council of African American Parents (CAAP)