Tribe Follow Up Story

Eight months ago the NEIU Independent covered the small upstart of the group T.R.I.B.E. in the Golden Eagles room. The meeting was attended by roughly ten people and the message projected seemed to fall upon deaf ears. It looked as if nothing was going to happen from their time and effort.

    Fast forward eight months to a room filled with 150 audience members, fast forward from 15 volunteers to 50 volunteers, fast forward to progress. Somewhere between April and December T.R.I.B.E. has had lucky star after lucky star shoot their way as the program has found its way into the Banner Academy which deals with at-risk students, ages 16-21.

"They started attending school every day, they started paying attention, they started to wear their uniforms, their scores are much better, they're just doing so much better." T.R.I.B.E. member Rick "The Ripper" Wilson noted. When Wilson is not working on his music career, Wilson is a volunteer and a proud T.R.I.B.E. member. With this progress Wilson looks forward to a future where T.R.I.B.E. can help in every school. His hope is that eventually T.R.I.B.E. can open its own high school for at risk youth.

Since the initial publishing in the NEIU Independent, T.R.I.B.E. has found its influence through Black Wall Street which linked the original NEIU Independent article to its site, and began the rush of attention. Soon T.R.I.B.E. founder Greg Mathis found himself speaking to larger and larger audiences, receiving more volunteers, and getting to work with the Pan Africa group which helps refugees from Pan Africa get adjusted to life in the United States and helps with employment for these immigrants.

While rushing to clean up after himself and head to his next meeting at Theodore Roosevelt High school, Mathis noted that there will be training for new T.R.I.B.E. members this May. For those interested in helping and volunteering visit HYPERLINK "http://www.tribenation.org"www.tribenation.org.