(BALTIMORE – May 25, 2023) – The Agoge Project’s vision is for each and every student who comes through our doors to leave with a skill set to not only become good at whatever they set their minds to but to cultivate the community around them to be able to do the same.
Our current program schedule is Monday – Thursday from 4 pm – 7:30 pm and Saturdays from 8 am – 11:30 am. This programming includes academic support, Spanish class, mentorship, life skills development workshops, and access to Boxing Jiu Jitsu, and other fitness-related classes weekly. Our services are 100% free to our youth and our participants are given access to over 1,000 hours of free out-of-school programming each year.
We are currently running an adult boxing program for $100 a month which gives adults access to 20 classes per month. We will be launching our adult Jiu-Jitsu classes on October 15th which will also be $100 a month giving access to 20 classes per month. For full access to both is $125. All profits from those programs are used to fund the youth program. We are also always looking for local families and businesses who are interested in sponsoring our program. Sponsors pay the same cost per month as attending the program but allow us to offer our classes to young adults while keeping our youth programs free.
PHYSICAL HEALTH
Our youth participants have access to classes each week that are built to better their physical health, train and coach them to be better athletes. These classes include:
• Boxing
• Kickboxing
• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
• Strength and Conditioning
• Health, Wellness, and Nutrition
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Through working in teams, and competing within and against teams, our youth develop skills in communication, relationship development, problem-solving, leadership, and teamwork.
Through our mentorship program, our students learn to talk about their feelings, share their thoughts, and seek support when experiencing challenges. They learn how to receive coaching/support and how to implement
strategies in their lives to help them navigate through challenging times.
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT
Through our mentorship program, our youth get to observe, experience, and sharpen their own mental
fortitude. Because training sessions, study sessions, team building exercises, and life experiences can be
tough, our youth learn to stay strong, work the challenges in their lives, never quit, and focus their energy on what is within their “locus of control”.
Our youth learn skills such as self-reflection, meditation, and mindfulness to help them build discipline and
accountability within themselves in the pursuit of self-discovery and mastery.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Through mentorship, our youth and their mentors dive deep into topics around goal setting and the development of characteristics within themselves to help them grow towards achieving their goals, both short-term and long-term.
Through training, our youth and our coaches address and unpack challenges within themselves that are holding
them back from achieving, identify the root causes of those challenges and work together to strengthen those
characteristics within themselves to overcome those challenges or barriers to achievement.
ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
Our youth meet with their coaches and mentors every Saturday to debrief the school week. They are required to
have an academic tracker, that tracks their academic and conduct progress, completed and signed by their teachers weekly. Our students set academic, physical, and social goals for themselves in and outside of our program.
During the weekly debriefs, our youth are supported through a self-reflection session where students identify
areas of progress and areas of challenges; they then generate plans for progression and advancement in
those challenging areas for the following weeks to come.
Through this process, our students learn how to take control of their learning and build the skills to acquire any
necessary skills that they want.
