Our vision:
Excellence.
“Neighborhoods become villages when all of the adults step up to show care and concern for all of the children”
Our Mission
Our mission is to create a pipeline of Black male teachers, by addressing the gaps in the recruitment and retention to help them successfully navigate and complete the pre-service pathway to become fully credentialed teachers.
The Village Initiative
The Watts of Power Foundation (WoPF) was established as a 501(c)3 organization in 2017 when Drs. Peter and Didi Watts wanted to create a culturally-affirming community-based approach to nurturing the development of Black public school teachers to address the academic achievement, social emotional learning and mental health needs of Black youth. In our pilot year, we trained 5 new Black male pre-service teachers and served over 520 students in Los Angeles, California. To learn more about our Teacher Village Initiative click here
Our vision over the next 10 years is to see 120 new Black male educators in Los Angeles impacting the lives of public school students.
The Village Initiative - Launch Day
OUR PARTNERS
“Having a Black teacher at a school in the inner city of Los Angeles showed me “Greatness can always be achieved.” It created a community where things like excelling past society’s expectations for Black people became the norm.”