The mission of Pro-Vision is to inspire hope and purpose by improving the lives of young men and their families in some of Houston’s most underserved neighborhoods. While Pro-Vision consists of a charter middle school and high school for “at-risk” young men, it is a multifaceted organization designed to engage multiple community resources and individuals to address the underlying causes of the educational and economic disparities that have a disproportionately negative impact on minorities. For twenty years, more than 3,000 young men have been strengthened by an organization that sees itself not just as a school, but as a community.
Pro-Vision invests in male youth within the 11 to 18 year old range who live below the poverty level, and participate in the Title I Free or Reduced Lunch program and other subsidized social assistance services. Pro-Vision’s student body is 85% African-American and 15% Hispanic, and the vast majority come from single female households with a median income of $18,000. Over 90% of Pro-Vision's young males have demonstrated unsuccessful performance in previous schools and enter 2-3 grades behind their peers academically. Many of the youth have working parents who lack the capacity to provide constructive activities for their children. Despite this background, 90% of Pro-Vision students go on to graduate from high school, and after graduation 97% go on to a four or two year college, trade school, or the military.
As an organization devoted to a segment of society for whom most have relinquished hope, Pro-Vision looks to re-invigorate the community’s faith in its youth and strengthen its ability to improve itself. The staff and faculty at Pro-Vision are driven by the conviction that within each at risk youth there is a champion ready to rise up and take responsibility for himself and his community. Pro-Vision seeks nothing less than to change the very landscape of urban poverty by altering the dismal expectations that have defined the neighborhoods, schools, and homes from which our students come.
