Integrity Plus Men/Youth at Risk Program
Integrity Plus: The Ministry
Integrity Plus “The Ministry” targets those who are trapped in an inner city mindset, or surrounded by alcohol and drug addiction, that instills hopelessness. Integrity plus seeks to display the love of Christ in assisting them to change moral, economic, and social conditions.
Building Hope to Cope
The focus is to instill a greater sense of self worth in the inner city participants by instilling hope through the understanding of integrity and increasing a desire for employment or to start their own business. We aim to provide solutions to help them cope with the “bad fruit” of wrong decisions that have become weights on bondage in their lives. This allows these individuals to achieve long lasting purpose and moral stability, which leads to a positive change of behavior.
The Problem
As you may or may not know, many miniority men and boys are at risk of never experiencing their full potential to be productive citizens in this country. Most of the men and boys in the minority inner city communities have fallen into the satanic trap of drug and alcohol abuse that is driven by an underworld mentality. The underworld mentality in recognized by an attempt to get as much as one can for nothing or what is commonly known as “getting over.” This mentality attacks the person’s desire to work and earn a productive living with some degree of integrity.
Defining Integrity
We define integrity as having the ability to do right because it’s right. In other words, doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reason when no one is looking. Living a life of saying what you mean and meaning what you say. The underworld mentality infuses decptive satisfaction along with deceptive logic that allows the person to really believe that this type of behavior is normal. Our American society has determined that building more prisons is the solution to this problem. Our community is also laced with numerous halfway houses that are working to assist in the massive undertaking of this problem. The medical world is getting wealthy by developing various types of programs. Therefore, the problem becomes that once a man leaves the prison system, or halfway house, what changes of behavior and understanding are in place to allow him another chance to succeed. We have discovered that there are three things that are in need of addressing in order to tackle and fight this social ill.
- The person needs to understand the concept of integrity. This may involve placing a mentor with integrity along side him for moral support and accountability on the job, in the business, and outside the walls of the program.
- The person needs a trade that can be easily attainable that will allow the person the opportunity to visualize success in his future.
- The person will need to expand their educational perspective.
Since few employers will pay inner city boys or men at risk a decent wage or, in some cases, hire them, many men and boys at risk find themselves right back in the cycle of destructive behavior.
We believe the Integrity Plus Men and Boys at Risk Program can help. It is connected to the Integrity Plus Landscape Program of Houston with an entire support system that includes institutions of higher education, businesses, churches, and individual supporters that really want to see those, who genuinely desire a second chance, to have one.
In the African-American minority communities there is very little support that will stand behind a person that has made some bad decisions in the past and has lost hope to cope with a normal life legally. Integrity Plus is dedicated to assisting a person strive to make it, until he makes it.
The Integrity Plus Network
Non-Profit Organizations:
Churches:
- Good Shepherd Missionary Baptist Church
- Second Baptist Church-Heights
- Pillar of Glory Christian Tabernacle
Businesses:
- Kelly Spray-All
- Integrity Plus Lawn Maintenance Program of Houston
Educational Institutions: