Ever Forward - Siempre Adelante

Ever Forward - Siempre Adelante (Ever Forward) mentors underserved youth in middle and high school by providing them with safe, brave communities that build character and transform lives. Ever Forward’s flagship program in the Bay Area is the school-based Ever Forward Clubs: weekly meetings of young men, led by a male mentor who creates a safe space for youth to be themselves, without judgment, and to develop into a strong community of males who are able to be vulnerable and support each other. Club members, who are primarily Black and Latino, also engage in rites of passages, local college visits, fundraising, and optional enrichment experiences. Ever Forward brings its model to schools and community organizations across the United States and globally through its Taking Off the Mask workshops, professional development, and the Taking Off the Mask Box, a toolkit for educators to facilitate their own Taking Off the Mask workshops for students in grades 6-12.

"If we don't give men and boys, starting with boys, these tools to say, I'm hurting in a healthy way, then we're going to keep losing them." – Ashanti Branch, Founder and Executive Director

Ever Forward also spearheads the #MillionMaskMovement: a global initiative to help young people, adults, and community gain a deeper understanding of how much we have in common through an exercise of self-reflection and deep connection. In this activity, which can be done digitally or on paper, and anonymously if preferred, individuals “take off the mask” by sharing one picture of the mask they show the world, and six words: three representing the qualities they let people see, and three representing qualities they don’t usually let people see.

In 2023, Ever Forward looks to relaunch its Social Emotional Leadership Academy (SELA), which was piloted in 2020 but interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. SELA aims to 24 young men in 12 Bay Area high schools to this 15-month program, which will include paid internships, leadership training, mentoring, and real-life work experience to support the expansion of the global #MillionMaskMovement and bring that work to their local school campuses and their communities. SELA participants will take a proactive role in uplifting others and take on leadership roles in their schools by starting either an Ever Forward Club or a Peer Mentoring Club that is open to all students.