Mahogany Youth Corporation

Our program “Teach A Child To Fish” incorporates the “Hooked on Fishing Not on Drugs” (HOFNOD) program developed by the American Sports Association and supported by the Florida Fish and Game. . FWC says” … that children and adults who spend time recreating in the outdoors learn to love and better understand Florida's unique and varied environment... For their own well being and for that of our precious natural world, children need opportunities to learn about, personally interact with and experience nature.”(HOFNOD) is an angling education program for youth proven to get positive results. The HOFNOD curriculum is based on teaching Life Skills. An example of titles of modules include: Introduction to "Hooked On Fishing - Not On Drugs" "Hooked On Fishing - Not On Drugs" Pledge and Code, Making Wise Choices About Illegal Drugs, Feeling Good About Yourself, Getting to Where You're Going, How You Are Unique, The Importance of Families, Choices & Feelings, It's OK to ask for Help. Our counselors are HOFNOD certified. We do a full FBI level background check. In addition we have empowerment training to learn how to speak possibilities and positive encouragement into the kids.
We have modified the curriculum to be more relevant to the urban population. By incorporating the stay off drug message throughout the 10 or 20 week program the kids have an opportunity to practice techniques to resist peer pressure. We reach at risk kids.
Our program uses best management practices, public/private partnerships, and quality educational materials to effectively recruit anglers from all sectors of society who become responsible stewards of aquatic resources. Its main goals are to teach drug prevention and keeping kids drug free, about fishing skills, boating, benefits of fishing, aquatic ecology and conservation
We offer afterschool, out of school and summer camps in multiple locations. We offer 3 levels of participation: A series of 2 classroom workshops and 1 fishing trip as an introduction, a 10 week program consisting of 7 classrooms and 3 fishing derbies, And our 20 week program consisting of 14 classrooms and 5 fishing derbies and a tournament. Some examples or our fishing derby locations are the everglades, Dania pier, boating on the ocean, Lake Okeechobee and local waterways. They investigate water quality, boating, fishing and conservation in that environment. We also offer monthly kids fishing event and quarterly family fishing events. We encourage long term involvement of our participants and have many graduates come back and volunteer. Some locations are biweekly, weekly or monthly.
We are in the Miami Dade Parks departments, Miami Gardens Parks department, Broward County Parks department, Miami Dade School District as well as individual non profit organizations and private schools. We have also provided programs for Miami Dade juvenile justice department. . We work with boys and girls from the ages of 6-17. We have a surprisingly large number of female participants in some programs up to 40% female participants in Broward County Parks for example. We have a majority of minority students, 65% African American, 20% Hispanic, 10% Caucasian and 5% other minority groups.