The YOUNG 365 Initiative is a multi-year effort to activate new and engaging youth programs and experiences. The project is also aimed at building partnerships with key organizations from around Chicago to promote and scale the best practices being used to reach youth. This outline presentation will provide a clearer picture of where we will be taking this ambitious endeavor.

2. YOUNG 365 Initiative
Promoting Books Over Balls
The YOUNG 365 INITIATIVE is a youth outreach concept developed by Johnnie Williams III who along with his
brother former Chicago Bull, Jerome “JYD” Williams , have inspired young people from around the world for
the past 25 years. Their work within the United States and abroad has been acknowledged by the White
House, the United Nations, NBA, Black Enterprise Magazine, and an array of municipalities.
The inspiration to launch YOUNG 365 was in an effort to expand upon their current role as the leadership
steering the Young 3 community outreach division of the BIG 3 professional 3-on-3 basketball league which is
co-owned by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entertainer, Ice Cube. This inspiring duo manage an amazing team of
former pro athletes and executives that have helped create unforgettable experiences for youth in cities all
across the country. In a meeting with Microsoft leadership, to discuss the Young 3 experience, the
conversation went on to explore ways to expand the current summer program into a year-round youth
outreach effort.
An ambitious endeavor like this is not new for these two, and they’ve chosen to launch this service project in
Chicago and its surrounding suburbs where it is needed most. YOUNG 365 is intended to impact multiple
communities, and link families to an array of social programs offered under a well managed app platform that
will provide a directory of effective mentoring services and disseminate much needed encouragers that will
clearly promote violence prevention , critical thinking, and personal development for youth/young adults.
Our Story:

3. YOUNG 365 Initiative
Promoting Books Over Balls
“Far too many young people are struggling with their mental health and unable to
get the support they need. We all have a role to play in supporting youth mental health
and creating a world where young people thrive.” – US Surgeon General
Young 365 along with Speakers University will be recruiting and training volunteers willing to
speak at local schools and host mentoring programs that will offer the additional
encouragement that so many of our kids will need to sustain their mental health. With the
support of mental health authors like Brandarius Johnson, and collaborations with NAMI, we
aim to wrap our students in support and cultivate more hope in schools across the nation.
In cities like Chicago, the youth violence has become so normalized that young students are functioning
with the consistent trauma of anticipated violence and danger. So the Books Over Balls organization
has sought to leverage the lure of basketball to entice young men to steer from participating in the negativity
and to reprioritize getting their education. The effectiveness of using basketball to decrease crime and
wayward behavior is in continuation of the great work started by coach Gil Walker and his legendary
Midnight Basketball leagues that continue across the country.
Our Why:

4. YOUNG 365 Initiative
Promoting Books Over Balls
The YOUNG 365 INITIATIVE is promoting a communal approach to reaching
and motivating young folks to stay in school, and prepare for tomorrow’s
workforce. Research has indicated that this can be achieved by working in
collaboration and by consolidating our efforts and resources. This project will
require a combination of resources from different sectors, along with experts
from diverse fields assisting in the implementation of scalable solutions for
youth and young adults, particularly those living in both urban low income
communities as well as suburban communities with similar needs.
Our Purpose:
Lack of education, parental unemployment and low wage jobs have each
contributed to many unwanted consequences we see reported.
The uniqueness of the YOUNG 365 INITIATIVE is in its focus on community
building and talent mining within marginalized neighborhoods, to help
transform their youth culture from hopeless to hopeful.

5. YOUNG 365 Initiative
Promoting Books Over Balls
The YOUNG 365 celebrity messages will promote Shooting For
Peace by athletes, activists and authors who all have very unique
stories of their resilience and hard work to overcome hard times.
Jerome Williams has been at the forefront for the past 13 years in
rallying retired NBA legends and Globetrotters to join his efforts to
inspire youth to place education as their lead priority to succeed.
See the video below or visit YOUNG365.org to access a video link.
Our Message:

6. YOUNG 365 Initiative
The YOUNG 365 Initiative is a unique partnership between a youth
violence prevention organization and a youth engagement specialist.
Together we intend to leverage our collective years of experience, best
practices, and extensive rolodex of contacts to do something very special.
Our Partnership:
Johnnie Williams III will serve as the YOUNG 365 project director. He brings more than
20+ years of youth engagement experience, along with a solid background in social
marketing, and contracted mentoring experience. And with the support from his
brother Jerome ‘JYD’ Williams, retired NBA global ambassador, the Williams Brothers
will continue to promote the importance of literacy and how books before balls is the
bet plan for achieving student success.
Books Over Balls is a nonprofit organization founded by Fernando Vincent more than 10
years ago. The charity will serve as the financial fiduciary for all grant funding sought and
secured. Additionally, they will support the project in reaching its goals, measuring the
outcomes, distributing program funds along with helping in the recruitment and
development of support staff needed to operate this initiative.
Promoting Books Over Balls

7. YOUNG 365 Initiative
Question #1 What in your opinion is the lead problem confronting youth from around your city?
Question #2 What effective solutions are currently in place to stem the issues impacting the youth?
Our Youth Assessment:
Imagine an organization allocating time and resources to survey over 3,650 youth to gain a real understanding of their
perspective, interests, concerns and disappointments. Then leverage that information to construct diverse programming
that is more ideal and more likely to draw youth participation and maintain better retention so that program funding does
not get wasted.
Question #3 What do you feel is a waste of time and resources, in attempt to resolve the main issue?
Question #4 What do you feel is missing from the options of support services and youth programs?
Promoting Books Over Balls

8. 365 Days of Community Support Services
“The problems I see in our society often appear bigger than me, but I know that they are
not bigger than us as a collective community, working together on behalf of our children.”
- Revin Fellows

9. Our Core Focus:
2 3
1
MENTAL
H.O.P.E.
SPORTS
LEADERSHIP
FAMILY
LITERACY
The YOUNG 365 Initiative will focus support and implement youth development services in three (3) critical areas:

10. Our Concept:
The YOUNG 365 Initiative was developed to provide year-round youth (engaging) experiences that focus on ‘Passing
Along Steps to Success’ through strategic collaborations and a blend of academic & athletic programs. Youth and
young adults ages 4 – 24 will be served by this multi-year initiative.
(3) areas of focus:
include mental hope,
family literacy, and
leadership development
(6) youth engagement
products that support
student success in ways
that can be measured
(5) program options
designed to engage
youth from pre-K thru
post secondary levels
3 6 5

11. Our Objectives:
Provide children of all
backgrounds an initiative
that takes into account
their opinions and
concerns to create more
impactful experiences
that draw them back to
amazing programs.
1st 2nd 3rd
To support the
creation of ideal
learning habits that
promote critical
thinking and a love for
literacy & learning.
Promote the concept of
‘Books Over Balls’ to
schools, coaches ,
parents and youth AAU
leagues throughout the
United States.
The YOUNG 365 Initiative was developed to accomplish three (3) distinct objectives that aim to re-engage students
who have become disengaged or disinterested in getting all they can from educational options and opportunities.

12. The YOUNG 365 Initiative has tasked itself with accomplishing 3 goals that we feel will keep the focus upon the main
thing, which is to empower youth and the communities from which they come to serve as the solution.
Develop very unique
experiences that engage
youth over multiple
years of service
Track the progress of all
participants as a means
of cultivating intrinsic
motivation
Grow the number of
local community
members serving as
staff, and mentors
Goal 1 Goal 2 Goal 3
Our Goals:

13. Our Phases:
The YOUNG 365 Initiative has a forecasted growth model that has been broken down into phases to
manage both program expansion and effectiveness as our ambitious intentions are to scale the
solutions and best practices, domestically and internationally.
Phase One [2023-24]
This phase of the initiative will
focus on the roll out of our core
outreach programs. The main
objective within this phase is to
survey at least 3,650 young
people. . The additional areas
of focus will be to solicit the
support that will be needed and
recruit the partners necessary
to activate phase two.
Phase Two [2025-26]
This phase of the initiative will
focus on the acquisition of larger
sponsorship and foundation
support to help finance our big
expansion. The audience we
look to begin serving will exceed
36,500 young people and this
will be due in part to program
licensing and digital program
outreach and engagement.
Phase Three [2027…]
This is the most ambitious
phase of the initiative and
requires the successful
completion of all the prior
phases. The audience at this
point is being served by partner
organizations across the nation
and beyond our borders. We
intend to serve 365,000 youth
on an annual basis (daily).

14. 365 Days of Community Support Services
“The majority of our society’s problems are man-made, leaving
the power of solution in our hands.” - Johnnie Williams III

15. Our Activists:
The YOUNG 365 Initiative has assembled a team of frontline activists to oversee the process and assist
us with recruiting, mentors, interns, volunteers, partners, sponsors and government grant support.
Broken WingGz Foundation was
founded by activist Eric Wilkins,
and will be advising on the best
approaches to take in recruiting
and retaining youth being pulled
into the prison pipeline. He will
also be providing mentors and
guest speakers from his extensive
network of young men and
young women who’ve become
paralyzed by street violence.
Revin’s Rolodex will provide
access to an extensive network
of powerful people and
politicians that can aid the
advancement of program
delivery and expansion. Revin
Fellows is the lead author of the
“Black Agenda”, which provides
a body of research offering very
strategic measures for helping to
stem many of the social ills in
urban communities.
Cesar Rolon Jr. is the creative
mastermind behind the Latino
Fashion Week and the Latino
Expo. His firm, Imagen
Marketing Consultants will
serve an instrumental role in
helping to brand the initiative
and create the YOUNG 365
EXPO in Chicago, Los Angeles
and Miami. Cesar Colon is our
go to guy to connect our cause
with the key sponsors.

16. Our Activists:
Speaker University was founded
by Lance Constantine, and will
be constructing our online public
speaking course. Our ambitious
goals of promoting mental hope
and spreading inspiration will
require that he and his team
develop an online training that
will help prepare a roster of local
presenters.
The Family Learning Company
will provide access to a robust
literacy platform that supports
the entire family with improving
their reading ability. Each
family license will allow for up
to six (6) people to access the
English or Spanish learning
modules. And with over 9,000+
different lessons, Peter Dublin
and his team are attacking the
problems through literacy.
SPM Signature Systems is the
community engagement
organization tasked with
overseeing our youth survey. This
unique organization is run by
Samuel “Mook” Mormon who’s
work on the frontline to stem
the violence is noteworthy. Many
of the outreach efforts and top
shelf experiences will be
supported by this organization.
“Activism is my rent for living on this planet.” - Alice Walker

17. Our Activists:
Customize Service Group was
founded by LaTasha Washington,
and will serve as the YOUNG 365
administrative support division.
Over the past 20 years her firm
has assisted both the Williams
Brothers in managing their youth
outreach programs, along with
event planning for their projects
hosted in cities all across the
United States.
Urban Tech Academy will
provide and oversee the STEM
and STEAM outreach services
for YOUNG 365. Patrick Young
and his team have spent years
certifying Young adults for
competitive tech occupations
and engaged youth through
computer training and robotics
programs and travel to local
and national tournaments.
Day 1 Ambition LLC is the mental
help organization that will be
aiding the YOUNG 365 volunteer
encouragers in sparking dialogue
around mental health & illness.
This impactful organization is run
by activist and ‘Mental Hope’
author, Brandarius Johnson who
is working tirelessly to help shed
the shame and the stigma of
speaking out about mental and
emotional challenges.
“Most activism is brought about by us ordinary people.” -Patricia Hill Collins

18. 365 Days of Community Support Services
“A winning coach impacts the culture with a well researched opinion as they take
a philosophical approach that aims to create winning habits.” - Gil Walker

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5
Books Over Balls School Assembly Tour
P.A.S.S. program Middle School Mentorship
B.I.K.E. program Elementary School Mentorship
citiZENcircle program High School Mentorship
Chase Your Dream program Young Adult
PROGRAMS

20. A powerFULL school presentation that clearly promotes
education, the importance of literacy, and the 5 habits of
successful students. This YOUNG 365 message promotes
proper behavior for both in and outside of the school. It
has uniquely leveraged a basketball as the lead metaphor
to aid in the message delivery. This message was designed
to inspire ES youth to aim for their dreams and cultivate a
love for learning new things each and every day.
#1- Books Over Balls: youth assembly

21. A social emotional program designed to engage MS students
requiring behavior modification in a unique way. This special
program involves the building of a brand new bike with the
guidance of a caring mentor highlighting the many teachable
moments that correlate to building a quality.
At this programs conclusion, each of the participants will be
receiving their own personal bicycle, as long as they have
completed all the noted requirements and made behavioral
adjustments needed to improve their grades in the core areas.
#2- B.I.K.E. Program: 10 weeks
B.I.K.E.
Believe In Kids Excelling

22. A series of 10 week mentoring programs designed to
Pass Along Steps to Success while sustaining student
engagement and supporting the creation of ideal habits
for student success, both in and outside the classroom.
This social emotional program was created to connect
with MS males using familiar sports themes to support
the process for creating comeback stories. This program
offers young men the competitive connection they
desire, along with the structure they desperately need.
#3- P.A.S.S. Program: 10 weeks

23. A social emotional program designed to allow HS youth
and young adults to express themselves, learn to listen
respectfully to others and also contribute to the
conversation. This conversational program has been
created to offer a communicative connection.
Participants will discuss the contents of the book and
audiobook ‘Mental Hope’ which was written to evoke
courageous conversations around sustaining mental health
and avoiding mental illness. The book leverages the story
of young man who stumbled his way to purpose and
onward to becoming successful, in spite of his mistakes.
#4- citZENcircle™: 10 weeks

24. A financial literacy program designed to assist teens and
young adults with their ultimate transition to independent
living. The program provides all participants with their own
workbook that provides information ranging from career
forecasting, resume writing, simple banking, the basics of
investing and credit information.
This program was designed at the request of the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation and
the funded workshop and workbook was used by them when trademarking the
program name, “Chase Your Dream.”
#5- Chase Your Dream: 10 weeks
CHASE YOUR
DREAM

25. 365 Days of Community Support Services
“A child without proper guidance and encouragement is likened to a bicycle
without handle bars, and will often lack direction.” - Samuel ‘Mook’ Mormon

26. Our Motivational Presentations:
‘Y-read’ literacy assembly to promote the importance
of learning to read - so you can read to learn.
‘Chase Your Dream’ graduation keynote that will
inspire your students to embrace their transition.
‘5 Steps to Success’ is a total engagement presentation
that utilizes simple metaphors to aid with retention.
1
2
3
‘You Can…’ is the official YOUNG 365 assembly theme
that’ll host professionals sharing their success stories.
‘SHATTERED’ is a very powerful anti-bully presentation
that addresses the topic in a completely different way.
‘Broken Wings’ is a violence prevention presentation
that’ll be provided by former victims of gun violence.
4
5
6

27. Our Program Support Products:
‘Think About It…’ is a thought journal written to spark
personal reflection and also to provoke class dialogue
‘Chase Your Dream’ is financial literacy workbook
designed to prepare young adults with life skills
‘Passport 2 Success’ is a habit building tool that tracks
positive progress in Math, English and Science classes
1
2
3
Think About It… daily quote app was designed to engage
youth and keep them thinking about an array of topics
(3) character building fictional novels written to engage
4th – 7th grade readers using basketball as a theme
(3) social emotional books written to aid young adults
with their personal development and life perspective(s)
4
5
6

28. Our Mental Hope Products:
Schedule a virtual ‘Write It Out’ session with the author
of ‘Mental Hope’ - there’s no surgery for depression.
Encourage your staff with the special message T-shirts
‘The World Wouldn’t Spin The Same Without You’
Purchase books, banners and bracelets for your school
library or language arts classes.
1
2
3

29. 365 Days of Community Support Services
“With every lap around the sun, I gain more and more to pass along to our children
so they might play this game of life in such a way that they can become successful.”
- Jerome ‘JYD’ Williams

30. 1
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Johnnie Williams III has been contracted as a
speaker, Title 1 mentor and staff development
trainer for the 5th and 4th largest school districts.
Johnnie Williams III has spoken before more
than 1 million students, both nationally and
internationally.
Johnnie Williams III has authored 3 personal
development books and has also co-authored 3
children’s chapter books with Orca Book Publishers.
Johnnie Williams III created a financial literacy
workbook at the request of the JP Morgan Chase
Foundation that was used in their trademark to
secure the ‘Chase Your Dream’ brand tagline.
Johnnie Williams has a diploma in Inter Cultural
Relations, and has developed some amazing staff
development trainings and engaging book studies.
Johnnie Williams III

31. 1
2
3
4
5
Jerome ‘JYD’ Williams is a college graduate from
Georgetown University, and has co-authored 3
children’s books through Orca Book Publishers.
Jerome Williams played 9 NBA seasons and 1 of
them with the Chicago Bulls franchise. He often
became a fan favorite due to his community work.
Jerome Williams has served as a NBA global
ambassador and was invited to the white house
and aided the U.S. state dept. on peace projects.
Jerome Williams created the Shooting for Peace
project more than 6 years ago while serving as
board V.P. of the retired NBA players union.
Jerome Williams was featured in GQ magazine for
his intelligent decisions off the court that include
his JYD project that served 500,000 youth.
Jerome “JYD” Williams

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We are seeking public and charter school partners
to embrace the YOUNG 365 Initiative and activate
plans to contract our student and staff services.
We are seeking local professionals and Toast Master
chapters to join our community of encouragers
committed to speaking to students at 3 schools.
We are aligning with frontline agencies to help
decrease youth violence, collaborate on youth
mentoring projects and create youth conferences
and community events together.
We are inviting local small and large businesses
to contribute donations to the Books Over Balls
(community mutual fund) to support the spread
of our youth development programs.
We are recruiting university students to accept
internship assignments that will provide hands
on experience in project management and
youth program development.