Advance the Dream® official mark FFH Channel Community · Civic Health & STEAM

Advance the Dream®

A multigenerational movement honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy through health literacy, civic action, and STEAM-based community impact — closing minority health disparities within a single generation.

Lead Partner · You Do Matter · Founding Allies · Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Chapters
Lead Partner Every season of Advance the Dream directly benefits You Do Matter and our hosting LEAGUE partners — 100% of net proceeds. See How →

The Four Pillars of Advance the Dream

Every program, partnership, and badge in this channel ties back to one of these four. They are the DNA of the movement.

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Keep theDREAM

Sustain the legacy and impact Dr. King made in this world — alive, taught, and acted upon.

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CivicHEALTH

Health literacy as a civil right. Communities organized around prevention and outcomes.

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PathwayBUILD

Open community health worker, STEAM, and IT-workforce pipelines for every generation.

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Leave aLEGACY

Intergenerational mentorship. Lift as you climb. Document what you build for those next.

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Joshua Williams
National Project Director · You Do Matter
FFH Champion Partner
Force for Health Champion Partner

Why Josh Is Why We Built This

At the start of 2026, Josh Williams nearly didn't make it. Diabetes complications put him in the hospital, cost him his leg, and on the same trip — driven to the ER by his father — he lost his dad to a heart attack while still in recovery.

Most people would have stepped back. Josh came back to work — and built the convening that became Season 5 of Advance the Dream, with his mentors, his team, and the partners who carried him through the worst stretch of his life.

We don't name a lot of Force for Health Champion Partners. We name the ones who, when they had every reason to disappear, instead came back to lift the next person up. — FFH Network

Josh's expansion vision: You Do Matter Teams powered by the Alphas, hosted at The Force for Health Network — anchored in Gadsden County, FL, extending into New Orleans (where he served as Director of Alumni at Dillard), and northward to every campus willing to do the work. He's currently weighing a run for Gadsden County Commissioner.

🎓 Specialty Command Center · National Directors Table

The HBCU Coalition Map

Where Divine Nine, MLK, and Juneteenth leaders connect, accelerate, and amplify connected actions together. Built so Josh's Advance the Dream Teams can be hosted, recognized, and credited at every level — local, state, regional, and national.

2
Founding ATD States
5
Active Student Teams
21
HBCU States + DC
107
HBCUs in the Coalition
9
Divine Nine Orgs
ADVANCE THE DREAM YOU DO MATTER · HUB
Founding ATD States · AZ + FL (2)
Active Student Teams · PA · LA · MS (3)
HBCU States · Awaiting Champion (17)
Divine Nine Reach · Strong D9 alumni (5)
⚡ Hover any state to preview · click for partner list
🪑 This is the summary view.
The full National Directors Command Center lives at its own page — open seat applications, recruitment, cadence, co-revenue structure.
Open Command Center →

Like the Chamber of Health National Directors Table — Advance the Dream gets its own. Built to maximize co-revenue opportunities with the FFH Foundation, athlete & alumni partners, and HBCU coalition leaders.

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Seat 1
National Project Director
Sets the season agenda, holds the through-line from MLK to today, owns You Do Matter delivery.
✓ Joshua Williams
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Seat 2
HBCU Coalition Lead
Recruits and stewards HBCU campus chapters across the 21-state coalition. Anchors Divine Nine alignment.
⚪ Open Seat · Recruiting
Seat 3
Faith Partners Director
Connects ATD Teams into Black church networks, faith leadership, and trusted community pulpits.
⚪ Open Seat · Recruiting
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Seat 4
Juneteenth & Cultural Alignment
Aligns ATD with Juneteenth, MLK Day, Black History Month, and other national civic-cultural moments.
⚪ Open Seat · Recruiting
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Seat 5
Divine Nine Liaison
Coordinates with Alpha Phi Alpha, Omega Psi Phi, AKA, Delta, and the rest of the D9 organizations on shared activations.
⚪ Open Seat · Recruiting
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Seat 6
Regional Directors (5)
One per region — South · Mid-Atlantic · Gulf · Texas/Plains · Mountain-West. Each owns a multi-state activation footprint.
⚪ 5 Seats Open · 0 Filled
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Seat 7
Campus Ambassadors
One per active campus — Villanova (Keira), Tulane, Dillard, plus the MS / FL / AZ campus reps as they're named.
⚪ 14 Seats · 1 Filled (Keira)
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Seat 8
Foundation & Sponsor Liaison
Owns co-revenue partnerships — athlete foundations, alumni chapters, corporate health sponsors. Ladders into FFH Foundation.
⚪ Open Seat · Recruiting
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New Orleans, LA
Dillard · Tulane
Hosting venue + student team · Josh's Dillard Director-of-Alumni roots
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Mississippi
Activated Team
Campus partner — TBN
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Villanova, PA
First Official FFH Student Club
National-first chartered chapter

Josh's Expansion Vision

You Do Matter Teams powered by the Alphas, hosted at The Force for Health Network. Anchored in Gadsden County, extending out from there into New Orleans, and connecting upward through every Alpha chapter and HBCU willing to bring the work home.

Each team is built to flow up two ways — to Advance the Dream (national) and to its own state & regional FFH activation — so local partners get credit, national partners get scale, and no single team carries the load alone.

K
Highlight Fellow · Keira
Charter lead, Villanova FFH Student Club — the first-of-its-kind in the nation. Recognized for laying out the process and playbook other campuses will follow.
🔴 Latest Recap

Josh Williams Convenes the Lead Partners

A You Do Matter strategy session bringing the Advance the Dream brain trust back to the table for Season 5.

Season 5 · Episode 0 · Strategy Convening

You Do Matter Lead-Partner Meeting

Hosted by Joshua Williams, National Project Director
Date April 23, 2026
Duration 2h 41m
Format Live Multigenerational Session
JW
Joshua Williams
National Project Director · You Do Matter

On the night of April 23, four of the original architects of You Do Matter reunited on Zoom to lay groundwork for Season 5 of Advance the Dream — and to recommit to the promise that started this work: closing minority health disparities within a single generation.

Host: Joshua Williams Charles Newson, Ph.D Evangeline Franklin Lucy Howell

Josh opened by re-anchoring the group in the original mission: a national health, civics, and STEAM-based program built in partnership with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Chapters across the Southwest and Western regions, now opening up to every community ready to do the work.

"We've been at this long enough to know that the DREAM doesn't keep itself alive. Every season we choose — together — what we're going to advance and who we're going to lift." — Joshua Williams, National Project Director
📝 Lucy's note The Zoom transcript wasn't accessible from the host's account. Direct quotes above are illustrative based on the meeting topic and Josh's published framing of Advance the Dream. Once the cleaned transcript is forwarded, this section will be replaced with verbatim, dead-spot-free quotes from Charles, Evangeline, Josh, and Lucy.

The convening set three priorities for the months ahead: relaunching the live multigenerational session cadence, reactivating the Virtual Selma March Challenge in time for the 2027 anniversary cycle, and formalizing the Healthy LEAGUE Challenge so every hosting partner can run it locally with shared infrastructure.

📺 The Deep Archive

Advance the Dream TV Channel

A treasure cove of 20–30 LIVE broadcasts featuring an incredible lineup of Alpha speakers, partners, and community elders. Sitting and ready to be shared, edited, and consumed by the next generation. The featured episode plays first; the rest of the playlist queues right behind it.

🎙️ 20–30 broadcasts in the archive · still growing
The Pathway

Courses, Bootcamps & Past Seasons

The Advance the Dream channel is a working library — every course, episode, and challenge is here to learn from and replay.

Season 5 · Coming Soon
$99
per season
Multigenerational

Join the Next Season of Advance the Dream

12-week live, multigenerational sessions plus on-demand companion content. Built for ambassadors, families, classrooms, and LEAGUE partners.

12-month 360° Ambassador Membership at The Force for Health® Network
Advance the Dream T-shirt — official season gear
Registration into the Virtual Selma March Challenge
Access to all live multigenerational sessions + replays
Healthy LEAGUE Challenge entry — prizes, badges, recognition
100% of net proceeds benefit You Do Matter and our hosting LEAGUE partners. Every dollar advances the work.
Reserve My Seat →

The Trailblazers Cube

You're in the center. Every other square is someone — civil rights elder, mentor, family member, peer, or someone you're lifting up — who's part of the dream you're advancing. Fill your squares with interviews, reflections, and recognition.

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Reach UP & HIGH · TrailblazersThe civil rights elders, mentors, and field-builders whose shoulders you stand on. Honor them by name.
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Reach OUT · Cherished Family & PeersThe family, faith community, and trusted partners standing with you right now. Recognize them in writing.
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Reach DOWN · MenteesThe next generation you are coaching, mentoring, and lifting. The rule of Advance the Dream: always be someone's Trailblazer.
✊🏾 Each square climbs 4 honor levels: RecognizeCapture (interview / story → blog + share) → Honor (Limited Edition Earned Tribute — gift-only, never bought) → Legacy Life Book (top-tier honorees featured in your bound book).
Start My Trailblazers Cube →
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Advance the Dream Legacy Book Maker — every interview, every reflection, every honoree feeds the FFH Book Maker. The capstone is your bound Advance the Dream Legacy Life Book — yours to keep, gift, or pass forward.
You Trailblazers Family & Peers Mentees Open
Coming Soon · Don't Build Here

Earn It & Wear It

Because everybody always asks: "so what do I get or earn?" Pre-designed Advance the Dream gear plus a Limited Edition tier you cannot buy — only earn. Your team, your STEAM logo, your shirt. Built for ambassadors, families, and chapter teams.

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T-Shirts
Pre-designed + custom team
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Sweatshirts
Crew + zip hoodies
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Water Bottles
Stainless · 24oz
Mugs
Ceramic · ATD logo
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Hats
Embroidered crests
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Mousepads
Desk swag for teams

🛒 Buy It

Standard catalog with Advance the Dream logos and your custom STEAM team logos. Available year-round to teams, family members, and supporters.

Browse the Shop · plug-in pending →

🏆 Earn It

The Limited Edition Series — ATD honoree gear, season-only commemoratives, Trailblazers Cube tribute pieces. Cannot be purchased. Earned through milestones, badges, or the EARNED It! Spin4Rewards system.

Open EARNED It! Spin4Rewards →
📌 Build note for Lucy The actual cart / checkout is being built in a separate thread. This section is the customer-facing teaser + the plug-in anchor. When the e-commerce stack lands, the "Buy It" CTA wires up directly to the catalog with no redesign needed.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1929 – 1968 · Architect of the Dream
Whose work we advance
The Why

Why "Advance the Dream"?

Dr. King didn't deliver a finished blueprint — he handed us a direction. This channel exists to keep moving in that direction with the tools of our time: health literacy, STEAM education, intergenerational mentorship, and a multigenerational community willing to do the work.

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman."

We launched Advance the Dream with a single working hypothesis: if we organize health literacy as a civic right and route every dollar back to community partners, we can close minority health disparities within a single generation. Five seasons in, we're still proving it.

Explore the Curriculum →
The FFH Network

Explore Other Channel Communities

Each channel is a self-contained universe of partners, programs, and pathways — all connected to the same mission.

Hosting Allies · 5-State Network

Our LEAGUE Partners

A growing network of student-activated Advance the Dream Teams hosted by You Do Matter. Each team flows up two ways — to Advance the Dream (national) and to its own state & regional FFH activation. 100% of net proceeds support You Do Matter and these hosting partners.

⭐ Lead Partner & National Host
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You Do Matter Mission Beneficiary · Hosts the 5-state student-activation network · 100% of net proceeds route here
🗺️ 5-State Student Activation Network · Reporting up to Advance the Dream + Regional Teams
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PA
Pennsylvania
Villanova UniversityStudent team activation
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LA
Louisiana
Dillard UniversityHosting venue
Tulane UniversityStudent team activation
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MS
Mississippi
Activated TeamCampus partner — TBN
Add Your State
Activate a campus team in a 6th state
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Become a LEAGUE Partner
Host a season in your community