Tune in KSCL on Mon @ 5 pm to hear about the Aspire program for at-risk youth as helmed by Brian Salvatore, PhD, LSU Shreveport

Brian Salvatore and daughter Sarah, Shreveport, a photo by trudeau on Flickr.

On KSCL's "Time for a Better Shreveport" radio program on March 7 Dr Brian Salvatore will talk about the A.S.P.I.R.E. program. This stands for "After School Program for Innovation and Respect for Education". It is a youth mentorship program that was started by the LSUS Foundation, with funding from the Community Foundation.

"It is serving some of Shreveport's most at-risk schools and neighborhoods. I don't think that anyone can or should underestimate the power of youth mentorship by young adults and what that can accomplish," says Salvatore.

"Shreveport is now 54% black. When I first started working with the inner city school students and some of the churches last year, my biggest fear was, "what if these people look at me and the LSUS student mentors as people who are displaying an air of superiority by coming into their neighborhoods and schools and thinking that he should be mentoring us". I half expected them to laugh in my face and walk away. Fortunately, that has not been the case. At the very worst, the attitude I got was "what took you so long to take notice of our needs and start to invest some of your time into our schools and our neighborhoods?". That is a feeling that I wholeheartedly understand. It is what motivates me to want to do more to reach those students who have not had high enough standards placed upon them yet in their lives."