As an educator in the community, how long is long enough? This past weekend was the Ever Forward Club’s Dance-A-Thon, the latest version of a community event that’s been going on every Memorial Day weekend for the past 21 years straight.

Barely anyone showed up.

Emotions from the day were polarized, to say the least - great connections, poor sense of relevance to the community and young people we are trying to serve. When is it time to turn the page for the sake of your students? And what self-talk was going on in my head the whole time, and how similar is it to the self-talk I’ve been seeing from students around the country?

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(0:00) Class in session

(3:30) Letting go of a 21-year-old community tradition

(14:55) The positive side of our community event and the young men I met

(20:30) Self-talk - what students say to themselves affects their ability to be their best at school

(26:50) Through this work for students and educators, we are going to…

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Contribute to our Dance-a-thon fundraiser: https://charity.pledgeit.org/EFC-DanceAThon 

Join our Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/efc-young-mens-advocates-2345 

Email us questions and comments at [email protected] 

Create your own mask anonymously at https://millionmask.org/ 

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Connect with Ashanti Branch:

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Website: https://www.branchspeaks.com/

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Support the podcast and the work of the Ever Forward Club: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/branch-speaks/support 

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Connect with Ever Forward Club:

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/everforwardclub

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