BRIGHT ROAD MENTORING PROGRAM

The Belafonte Family Foundation’s Bright Road Mentoring Program is designed to help young people find their way in a world that is, for many, a gauntlet of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Finding a baseline of stability is a critical piece of a young person’s healthy development.

In keeping with a common thread of health and wellness, the program is delivered through a martial arts-based curriculum, the created as an alternative path to a positive lifestyle for young people who have a great need to be part of a group, and often choose the wrong group simply because of this very real need for support from peers and elders, even if that choice puts them on a wrong path. When practiced with commitment and consistency, the benefits a martial arts lifestyle teaches commitment to self-discovery, acceptance, control, and respect… an enlightening way of life for those who live it. Bright Road is a way to reach these young people before, during, and after they possibly engage in potentially negative life-altering behavior.

A longtime Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practicioner and blackbelt under Babs Olusanmokun, David Belafonte has a deep connection to the martial arts and is developing the Bright Road Scholarship program to create access for at-risk youth to train and benefit from the positive impacts of a good martial arts curriculum.

Over 25 plus years David has developed a number of long standing relationships with accredited instructors in various disciplines ranging from Capoeira and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Muay Thai and other traditional striking arts.

As part of the Bright Road Martial Arts programs, these top shelf instructors have agreed to partner with BFF to develop the curriculum and related elements of recruitment and mentorship.

Sidecar to the obvious physical benefits of training under the right auspices are the significant mental and psychological benefits. The patience and attention required to learn and subsequently master martial arts techniques in all disciplines can take students years to master. But once learned, they feel accomplished and empowered fostering good self-esteem and a high level of confidence.

Students will learn some of their greatest and most important life lessons that will help give them direction and purpose, whether in an office, at home, or in a class room, having a significant impact on their daily life.

THE NAME

Bright Road, a 1953 low-budget film, is the first feature film appearance by Harry Belafonte, who co-stars as the principal of a school. Featuring a nearly all-black cast, the film stars Dorothy Dandridge as an idealistic first-year elementary school teacher trying to reach out to a problem student, and ultimately succeeds. It is in the spirit of this film showcasing the positive results that come from investing in our at-risk-youth, that we have adopted the “Bright Road” moniker.

MID-HUDSON VALLEY CAMP

The Belafonte Family Foundation continues to bring its Bright Road Mentoring and Martial Arts program to the Mid-Hudson Valley Camp (MHVC) in Esopus NY. The Mid-Hudson Valley Camp is dedicated to serving diverse populations, while promoting self-respect, equality and equity of all in attendance. Committed to serving the neediest of people, providing them with a safe environment of acceptance and respect.