Climb: Face Your Past, Own Your Future

DESCRIPTION:CLIMB is a set of strategies designed to help the reader out of emotional isolation. This workbook offers five transformational steps that empower the reader to take action in the present so they can own their future and ultimately fulfill their life’s purpose. PURPOSE AND NEED:This workbook serves as a coaching tool to help teens and adults face unresolved issues or past hurts that often keep them from living their best life. Whether the past hurt stems from parental abandonment, loss of a loved one, abuse, or bullying, a person cannot overcome what they refuse to confront. When you haven’t been given the tools to properly confront the pain of the past, it often leads to deviant behavior such as gang activity, gambling, alcoholism, drug abuse, crime and sexual promiscuity. Unresolved emotional pain can also manifest itself in non-violent ways such as eating disorders, being consistently withdrawn, excessive gaming, tobacco usage and listening to explicit music, all of which can negatively impact your most important relationships, which impacts your future.

Rod Cunningham was born to a 15-year-old mother in the housing projects of Jacksonville, Florida. His father was 19-years-old when he died two weeks before his birth. Rod watched his step-father verbally and physically abuse his mother for 7 years, leading to he and his mother escaping the home in the middle of the night. They eventually divorced, leaving him to grow up without any adult male influence, which led to him having a daughter at 19-years-old, in search of his manhood. The choice to join the Air Force was the best decision of his life, getting plenty of male influence from men of honor, dignity, and character.

Rod retired from the U.S. Air Force after 29 years of dedicated service to our country in February 2016 as a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). He developed leadership programs for the Air Force. In his role as Dean of Students, Air Force Technical Training School in Biloxi, MS, he personally counseled, mentored, and coached 2,500 students annually and developed a student mentorship program that decreased academic attrition rate by 90% in three years. After retirement, he joined the Pinellas County Urban League as Vice President of Corporate Relations where he successfully developed and managed a weekly poverty reduction program for 23 families in low-income communities.

He is currently a transformational speaker, youth empowerment coach, and community leader. He has participated in over 50 leadership and community panels, has delivered over 300 speeches and he is humbled by the fact that he has individually counseled, mentored, and empowered over 9,000 teenagers and young adults between the ages of 10 and 30 over the last six years who entrusted him with their innermost secrets. He mentors juvenile detainees, works with the Urban League s Youth and Empowerment Programs, developed and taught a manhood course for the Pinellas County Job Corps called Confront and Conquer, The Journey to Manhood , and mentors 40+ young men and women each week.

Rod is regarded by many community leaders and young adults around the country as a leader who is passionate about the success of others. Rod speaks about facing your past to own your future. He has a simple, yet impactful way of showing how the events of life can put many of us in an emotional hole of varying degrees. Rod has the ability to, get in the hole , because he s been there. He teaches you how to quickly CLIMB out before life s next major negative event. His techniques are designed to change a child, a family, a school, a community, a city, and a nation. Whether it is a one-on-one session, a 15-minute speech, a 1-hour speech, or a week-long seminar, Rod can help change the direction of your life!

Rod and his wife Valerie reside in the beautiful, St. Petersburg, Florida. He has three adult children and five grandchildren.