Blog
Domestic Violence Is Worse Than You Think–And It Has to Stop!
Featured on the Huffington Post: The following conservation took place on the April 10 broadcast of Street Soldiers, a live call-in radio show hosted every Sunday night in the San Francisco Bay Area on KMEL 106.1. Co-hosts Dr. Marshall and Lady Estell discussed domestic violence with Executive Director of the Alameda County Family Justice Center Cherri…
Read MoreWhy I Love Black History Month–and How To Do It Better
Featured on the Huffington Post I love Black History Month. I just believe we can do it better. At the beginning of February last year I had a long talk with the young people at my youth program Alive & Free to find out what they knew about Black History. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t very much.…
Read MoreThe Joe Marshall Plan (USF Magazine)
Joe Marshall founded the Omega Boys Club with the belief that many inner-city youth want to escape lives of drugs, gangs, and violence, but don’t know how. His no-nonsense, no-judgment program saves their lives. Then it sends them to college. Joe Marshall ’68 is live on the air at San Francisco’s KMEL radio station, asking questions,…
Read MoreA’s in Math, F’s in Life
Marshall went to work teaching math in the city’s high schools and middle schools, always expecting the most from his students. “The only way to pass my class was to pass my tests, ” he says. “I’d give them homework and call their homes. I figured if they could survive me, they’d be fine.” The…
Read MoreBelievers Out of Doubters
Marshall believes youth violence is a disease, one that can be treated and prevented. His prescription is Alive & Free. At its core is the Leadership Academy, which serves about 200 young people every year, ages 14 to 24. Expectations are high, class participation is mandatory, and success is the new norm. These days, as many…
Read MoreThe More You Know, the More You Owe
Alive & Free’s success—along with his popular book—has given Marshall visibility not only in San Francisco but throughout the country. So when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom was looking to remake the city’s Police Commission, his first thought was Joe Marshall. “I had seen firsthand the work he had done and knew what a presence he was in…
Read MoreNBC Bay Area Celebrates Alive & Free’s 200th Graduate Milestone
by Garvin Thomas NBC Bay Area Dr. Joseph Marshall is in a constant battle with the streets of San Francisco. Up against drugs, gang activity, teen pregnancy and in the worst cases, death. “It’s a tug-o-war. And you know I’m on this side, you know, our organization’s on one side pulling this way, and then…
Read MoreKeeping Kids Alive & Free (KALW Radio)
In 2011, about 82 percent of San Francisco’s students graduated from high school. Ten percent dropped out. Break it down by ethnic group and the numbers change in uncomfortable ways. For example, just 62.3 percent of the city’s African-American students graduated, and nearly 20 percent dropped out. The numbers for Latino students are similar. Kids…
Read MoreKTVU: Omega Boys’ Club celebrates 28 years of keeping kids off streets
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KTVU) – A program in San Francisco designed to help low income inner city children celebrates a milestone this weekend. The Omega Boys’ Club in the Potrero Hill neighborhood has 200 college graduates. It serves youngsters – both boys and girls – from cities all over the Bay Area. “Twenty-eight years of…
Read MoreClarence B. Jones Praises Alive & Free
Against the cacophony of domestic and international news about the recent Iran Nuclear weapons agreement; the financial “bailout” of Greece; NASA’s unprecedented photos of the planet Pluto; the travels and speeches of Pope Francis; the continuing fight against ISIS; Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and other Republican and Democratic presidential contenders; the Confederate flag in Charleston,…
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