About Us

Mission

For Ryan’s Sake mission is to work with families and communities to empower and improve middle and high school aged students’ academic success. We do this to divert our youth from teen and gun violence.

Vision

To incentivize students to maintain a GPA of a C or higher in all classes, to engage in positive character-building activities of their choice through our mentoring partnerships, and to minimize the number of behavioral issues that affect their learning.

Why

On April 9, 2022, my son, Ryan R. Rowe was murdered due to gun and teenage violence. Ryan had just celebrated his 16^th birthday on March 29, 2022, at the time of his untimely death. The four murderers identified were three of his peers, and one 19-year-old adult. As Ryan’s mother, my heart, mind, and soul were numb to the heartbreaking death of my son. All I could think of was, “How could I let this happen?”

There were many things I could identify that could have contributed to Ryan’s decision-making on the day of his death; however, that is no excuse for his senseless and violent murder. Instead of constantly focusing on the unproductive thoughts of, “What if?”, I decided to redirect my thoughts, energy, and anger towards a solution-based initiative to honor my son, while also assisting in preventing another parent from having to bury their child due to gun violence.

According to the National Gang Center: Office of Juvenile Justice and Prevention, there are five domains that contribute to the likelihood of teens joining gangs or committing violent acts:

• Individual
• Family
• School
• Peer
• Neighborhood/Community

I noticed that many of the traditional mentoring programs that I had contact with were short term initiatives that only lasted for a day, several weeks, or a quarter/semester.

Furthermore, these short-term mentoring initiatives mainly focused on the success factor of schools, peer interactions, neighborhoods, and the effectiveness in low-income populations. Traditional based mentoring programs are still a very intricate part of our educational system and have a rightful place within the academic structure. However, For Ryan’s Sake (FRS), focuses on the individual student, with an active Individual Education Plan (IEP), accompanied by extreme behavioral issues that could possibly affect the students’ decision making skills and grades. At FRS, we want to provide continuous support and mentorship to troubled teens until they graduate high school, and matriculate on to enrolling in college or train for a skilled trade. These efforts are to ensure their future success, become productive members of society, and to disrupt the statistical school-to-prison pipeline stereotype. It is our belief that if we can help a child change their way of thinking regardless of their environment, we will have less teen and gun violence in our communities.