The National CARES Mentoring Movement celebrated its 10th annual “For the Love of Our Children” Gala at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan on March 6, 2025. Harlem Councilmember Yusef Salaam was among honorees at the event.
“Essence” CEO Susan L. Taylor founded National CARES nearly 20 years ago. Since then National CARES has recruited, trained, and placed some 250,000 mentors in its own programs in schools, communities, and detention centers across the U.S. Partners like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, whose clients need Black mentors, also support the program.
Taylor said young people are already starting from behind from the realities of post-COVID life and that the latest pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) would only increase those disparities. “The DEI pushback is really devastating to people who are employed in that space, and also to the programs that were being funded and committed to, and certainly to the work that we do as a nonprofit that’s serving communities and pushing [help] toward people,” Taylor said.
However, Taylor said the “phenomenal” turnout for the gala was evidence that Black people will continue to come together to fight back. “We’re going to step up for our community. We’re stepping up for our future,” Taylor said.
Award-winning actress Taraji P. Henson, philanthropist Tina Knowles, author Dr. Iyanla Vanzant, and Salaam all received the organization’s North Star Award.
Bill Moore photos
Salaam spoke about his humbling life experiences as a member of the Exonerated Five and now an elected official. He said it’s important to show up as “your whole self” as a mentor. Salaam is the father of a big family — 10 kids. He said having the right partner allows him to show up authentically and fully for them. His wife, Sanovia, attended the gala as well as his mother, Sharonne.
In his acceptance speech, Salaam said his mother, a life-long criminal justice activist, being his “North Star” through difficult times. If given the opportunity, Salaam said he would advise his younger self “to strap in for the ride” but wouldn’t necessarily change anything that happened to him. “The beautiful thing about Sankofa is that I can go back and talk to my younger self, heal my younger self, and tell my younger self, ‘You made it,’” he said.
Civil rights activist and Harlem native Tamika Mallory called Taylor “a major stallworth in the community”: “She made her success a long time ago, and she could have said, ‘I’m just going to go and chill in my sunrise and enjoy my life,’ but instead, she is choosing to give herself over and over and over again,” Mallory said.
Mallory also emphasized the importance of unity, sounding the alarm about the “unprecedented” fight Black Americans find themselves in with the current administration and its anti-DEI movement.
“I’ve been talking to elders who are saying that there was never a time when they had rights and they were stripped away in the ways in which we see. They had to fight to get the rights, but we’re now seeing that those rights are being taken away, and that is unprecedented,” Mallory said. “We are living in uncharted territory, and we’re going to need to stand together.”
Funds raised at the gala went toward National CARES’ trauma-healing programming, especially efforts to combat the 144% rise in suicides among Black youths.
“We could not have grown our work and programming without the generosity of those who support us,” said Taylor in a statement. “But with depression and Black child suicide at epidemic levels, our work must not only be sustained, but grown. Our children have to know that we love them and that we are unwilling to lose them.”
Additional reporting from JASON PONTEROTTO.