Podare: The Magic of Myth and Coaching (7/29)

Kwame Scruggs

G. Kwame Scruggs has over 20 years of experience using myth in the development of urban male youth. He holds a Ph.D. and MA in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Kwame also holds a MS degree in Technical Education with an emphasis in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Akron where he also completed all the course work for a MS degree in Community Counseling. He has conducted numerous workshops on the use of myth to engage urban youth, presenting at Columbia University’s Teacher College, Clinical Psychology Program, Grand Rounds, Rutgers University School of Social Work Doctoral Program, Pacifica Graduate Institute, C.G. Jung sites of New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia and the Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture. Kwame is the founder and director of Alchemy, a non-profit organization in Akron, Ohio established in 2003. Alchemy uses mythological stories to engage urban adolescent males. In 2012 Alchemy was one of 12 programs to receive the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities—the nation’s highest honor for after-school and out-of-school programs. Alchemy was also the backdrop for the award-winning, feature-length documentary, “Finding the Gold Within.” Kwame is a recently appointed board member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Creative Youth Development National Partnership.