Sidney Moncrief, founder and president of Moncrief Game Changer Inc.
Had2 of Little Rock and Sidney Moncrief, a former University of Arkansas Razorback basketball All-Star and NBA basketball player, have teamed up on a new career readiness initiative for Arkansas.
Had2 was founded by Ron Watson, who is the nonprofit’s president. Moncrief founded Moncrief Game Changer Inc. of Dallas and serves as its president.
The two men, Arkansas natives who have owned businesses, have planned a 10-city Arkansas tour over the next three and a half months to launch the initiative, which aims to prepare disadvantaged youth for entry into the workforce.
So far, they’ve scheduled seven forums in:
- Hot Springs on Jan. 27
- Pine Bluff on Feb. 3
- Little Rock on Feb. 10
- Fort Smith on March 3
- Jonesboro on March 24
- Helena on March 31
- Texarkana, Arkansas, on April 14
Moncrief told Arkansas Business the initiative will teach youth about the soft skills required to succeed in their careers. “Soft skills” include being an effective communicator, being able to work as a team, a good work ethic, being able to resolve conflicts and engaging in critical thinking, problem solving, negotiating, selling and more.
Moncrief’s organization visits with youth and focuses on teaching them eight to 10 soft skills identified by schools and communities as skills they most need to learn.
“We know that soft skills [are] the ‘it’ factor,” he said. “It’s going to separate even someone who is struggling academically and saying they’re not going to, maybe, make it to college, but they’re going to need a career. Their ability to have effective soft skills will separate them from their peers and also someone that’s in college, has done well at college and graduated with multiple degrees.”
Watson said it doesn’t matter how book smart a youth is if he or she can’t build relationships.
Watson said his organization’s goal has been to inspire kids to finish high school in a state where 24,450 of them didn’t last semester. He added that 75 percent of people in prison didn’t finish high school because uneducated decision-making leads to crime.
He said he and Moncrief crossed paths when speaking to kids. With their new initiative, Watson said, “We’re wanting the youth to literally get laser focused on how they can ‘build a better me.'”
The two emphasized the need for businesses to become involved in the effort, both through sponsorship and by sharing their people. They said youth must interact with professionals, especially managers and business owners.
“We can’t strengthen our workforce in the state of Arkansas without the business community,” Watson said. “So that’s why we’ve got to have all businesses on board because we’re talking about your next employee. This is a real opportunity for us as a state to get behind our youth, get behind what our future workforce looks like. That’s what matters the most.”
He said that a better workforce will attract new companies to Arkansas.
Sign up for Daily E-news
