Leaders of the Future: Building & Empowering Safer and Stronger Communities
In March 2024, The Community Foundation awarded $1 million in grants to organizations from across DC to help promote peacemakers who are working to empower children, youth and adults to build stronger, safer communities. These investments were made in partnership with the DC Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement.
In honor of Gun Violence Prevention Month, The Community Foundation is excited to highlight the work and mission of these incredible organizations and the impact that they've had in empowering and uplifting their respective communities.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We currently serve the Wellington Park, Stanton Oaks and Hunter Place communities.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Horton’s Kids empowers children growing up in DC’s most under-resourced communities so that they graduate from high school ready for success in college, career, and life. We serve 600 children and their families living in Wellington Park & Stanton Oaks – neighborhoods that have been profoundly impacted by decades of disinvestment and barriers to opportunity.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
Horton's Kids has a close partnership with the property management company of both properties that we serve and we have biweekly meetings that have a strong focus on the safety of the residents. Members of property security as well as MPD are also present during these meetings.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
Horton's Kids is committed to involving and empowering community members in various ways. We understand that the perspectives, experiences, and feedback of community members are invaluable for creating a safe community for them. Some of the ways we involve the community members in the work we do is by creating opportunities for them to volunteer as well providing job opportunities. We also have an active Parent Advisory Council that assists us in making sure our parent's and community member's voices are heard and well respected. We understand that by involving community members in our processes, we build trust and accountability. Community involvement fuels innovation by tapping into the collective expertise and creativity of diverse stakeholders. By empowering community members to contribute to our work, we unlock new ideas, approaches, and opportunities for positive societal impact.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
We're excited about the process. A lot of times people fall in love with the outcome whereas we've learned to fall in love with the entire process because there are so many learning opportunities for us all to learn from but that only comes when you go through the entire process.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
Horton's Kids' dreams and aspirations for the future is for our participants, their parents and other community members to have a safe environment where everyone feels connected and everyone is moving on one accord toward the goal of peace and prosperity.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We provide our services in the metropolitan Washington, DC area and surrounding areas in Virginia and Maryland. We serve individuals living in all eight Wards of DC, with a particular focus on Wards 7 and 8.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Negotiation Works provides negotiation and self-advocacy training for people emerging from difficult and often traumatic situations–such as incarceration, homelessness, addiction, and domestic violence–so they develop the skills to navigate everyday challenges and live the next chapters in their lives confidently and productively.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
We help build a stronger, safer community by teaching negotiation skills classes to people coming out of homelessness, incarceration, domestic violence, and other challenging life situations. Our curriculum addresses foundational negotiation strategies and self-advocacy skills, such as perspective-taking, identifying both parties’ interests, brainstorming potential solutions, crafting alternatives to negotiated agreements, active listening, and communicating effectively. The individuals who complete the Negotiation Works classes become better equipped to work through the daily frustrations that might otherwise fester and then escalate into gun or other violence. More broadly, when community members have the confidence and commitment to listen to one another, learn each other’s perspectives, and work alongside one another, they can--collectively--sort through their differences in a non-violent manner and contribute to the upward trajectory of the community as a whole.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
We engage all our participants in shaping our curriculum. We solicit feedback from program participants about how the role plays and scenarios we use resonate with them and what uses they find in their own lives to implement negotiation strategies. We examine this input with an eye toward either making modifications to our existing scenarios or developing new ones.
Participants who complete the Negotiation Works program are invited to become Ambassadors, an ongoing learning and service community for former class participants with opportunities to serve as informal advisors to Negotiation Works, problem-solving consultants to one another, and role models in the community as effective conflict resolvers and self-advocates. The Ambassadors influence the content, scope, and reach of our work. Their lived experience and stories offer invaluable contributions to how we shape the curriculum, leading us--for example--to provide more scenarios dealing with how returning citizens might negotiate for housing, or work through difficult situations in the workplace. Finally, they are beginning to develop their own dispute resolution programs for youth, through which they seek to teach negotiation strategies to youth, using their experiences to model how to work through conflicts by engaging in conversation, rather than by arguing or, worse, picking up a gun. Their influence is limitless as they spread their problem-solving skills in their families, workplaces, and broader communities.5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
We see unlimited potential in youth in our Negotiation Works community. They want to play a role in strengthening their communities, and we are excited about supporting them on their journeys.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
My dream is to foster stronger, more resilient communities by sharing conflict resolution, problem-solving, and self-advocacy skills everywhere. When the members of a community have the tools to advocate for themselves and negotiate with each other, they are better able to achieve shared goals, create lasting relationships, and improve the stability of the community as a whole.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We primarily serve at-risk youth residing in Wards 4, 5, 7, and 8.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
BEST Kids empowers youth who are in foster care and at-risk to build healthy and successful futures through mentoring, college and career readiness, and life skills programs. We aim to ensure that youth who are in foster care or at-risk are meaningfully connected to positive adults and provided with the tools to feel confident and valued and placed on a path to achieve success as adults.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
Through regular engagement with positive adult mentors, access to academic resources, career readiness skills, cultural and recreational experiences, leadership opportunities, and mental health support, as well as providing that key stability to support our youth over the long term, BEST Kids addresses the systemic challenges and mitigates the risk factors associated with violence. Our program provides evidence-based solutions to equip our youth with the tools necessary to thrive as successful adults and become youth violence prevention advocates, which in turn will help to build stronger families and create safer communities.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
Community engagement and centering the voice of our youth is a critical element of our organization. We understand that involving the youth we serve in our decision making and programming is vital to the long-term sustainability of our program. The BEST Kids mentor relationship is set up to encourage our youth to name their goals, develop their unique identity, and explore their own potential. In 2020, we created the Youth Leadership Council, a group of mentees who meet bi-monthly to share ideas on how to improve programming and amplify the impact of our organization. Their participation and input have helped us to glean the issues and services that matter to them the most, allowing us to identify improvements and additions to our program. In addition, YLC members build their confidence and leadership skills by speaking and advocating before community leaders charged with making decisions that affect youth experiences in the child welfare system. By providing them with the opportunity to be better and do better, then we are succeeding in our mission of helping to build healthy and successful futures for foster and at-risk youth in the Washington, DC community.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
The foster and at-risk youth we serve are incredibly resilient people. They face tremendous challenges and trauma on a daily basis, yet by equipping them with the necessary tools, resources and exposure to positive opportunities that may not otherwise be available to them, we are placing them on a path to thrive and become the best version of themselves. Through our interaction and engagement with our youth, we see them taking the limits off what they thought was possible and embracing their futures with confidence, resilience, and tenacity.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
As a leader, my dreams and aspirations for the future revolve around creating a safer, more peaceful community where every individual feels secure and valued. I envision a world where our collective efforts to prevent violence result in tangible, lasting change, fostering environments where our children can grow up without fear and our neighborhoods can thrive with mutual respect and support. I am committed to empowering our community with the resources, education, mentorship, and support needed to break the cycle of violence. By providing mentorship, we can guide and inspire our youth to reach their full potential and become positive role models for others. Through continued collaboration and innovation, I hope we can build a foundation of hope and resilience that will inspire future generations to cultivate a place of peace and unity.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We serve all of DC
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
We are preventing gun violence through the intersectionality of positive youth development and public health.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
We provide economic opportunities to all youth that we serve and encounter as the CDC reports that economic opportunity is a protective factor that lessens the likelihood of youth violence victimization and perpetration.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project recognizes that the communities that we serve already possess the power necessary to prevent the spread of gun violence. In this light, we include them in our vision and strategy as experts. We inform our people on how to address gun violence through a public health lens as education is the first step to transformation and systemic reform.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
We are most excited that our youth are the long-term plan and approach to preventing future gun violence from spreading. Working with our youth, as leaders of today, equips them to design and implement the sustainable strategies necessary to see a world present in health equity and absent from gun violence.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
We envision a world absent from the disease of gun violence led by public health voices.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
We serve residents citywide, with a special focus on communities with high concentrations of poverty in wards 5, 6, 7 and 8.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Our mission is to engage Black mothers in the struggle for family preservation through transformation of family and government laws, policies and practices from punitive to empowering.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
We use the following power building strategies for system’s transformation: Community engagement, research, and mobilization; policy advocacy; and legal information, representation and other programs.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
Our organization engages community members through training, engagement in policy advocacy, and uplifting their voices to speak truth to, and push the levers of power. Our community engagement, research, and mobilization center the expertise of the community. We show up to support community members in visioning change, crafting solutions and advancing them in the local legislative and executive branches as we seek to defend them and shrink carceral systems that ensnare their families.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
We believe strong families build strong futures for youth and their communities. We are excited about building a guaranteed income with a future of economic security for families where youth can grow and thrive and focus on supporting one another. If we pass policies like guaranteed income for youth, which is possible in the capital of the wealthiest nation on earth, their futures and those of their communities, will be secure and free of violence.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
I want to see the elimination of poverty in the District of Columbia through a guaranteed income. We’d like to strengthen the existing safety net and to build new ones. we seek to do so through continued power building and strategic partnerships and execution!
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
Paso Nuevo serves youths from DC, with most students coming from the Columbia Heights neighborhood where the theatre is located, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, Petworth, U Street, Brightwood, and Sixteenth Street Heights.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Paso Nuevo is a community-based performing arts program that provides low-income and multicultural youth with critical life and job skills in a creative, bilingual environment. Through Paso Nuevo, Latino youth ages 14-19 have a safe space in which to explore and take pride in their linguistic and cultural heritage, improve literacy and communication skills in both English and Spanish, discover their creative voice, gain valuable academic and job skills, and develop the tools necessary to engage more successfully in their schools and communities.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
GALA Theatre provides a safe space for students to gather after school and during the summer, offering various performing-arts classes, technical training, and mentoring. Through participation in the arts, students in Paso Nuevo explore their cultures and identities and grow their academic skills and self-confidence. After training in several areas of theater, including artistic and technical fields, students engage in volunteer and work opportunities, gaining the leadership skills they need to advocate for themselves, their families, and their community. With internships and stipends, Paso Nuevo provides students an immediate economic benefit, as well as the experience and life skills to improve their short- and long-term career prospects, while imbuing in them a sense of commitment to the surrounding area. Students also learn techniques to manage day-to-day issues that may arise at home, school or in the community through conflict resolution sessions and meet with MPD officers to foster improved relations with the police. Three times a year participants present a free bilingual performance for the surrounding community.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
GALA Hispanic Theatre’s free Paso Nuevo afterschool program draws in students from around DC to participate in arts classes, technical training, and mentoring. GALA also invites community members to free Paso Nuevo performances on its mainstage at the end of the Winter, Spring and Summer sessions. The public is engaged in a talkback with students, who share their experiences in the program. The theater also opens its doors to families in January for Three Kings Day, with a nativity procession and play, music, dance, live animals, and free gifts for all children. Additionally, Paso Nuevo students lead the community in a free public celebration of Day of the Dead in the Columbia Heights green.
In the area of community safety, Paso Nuevo students survey and interview community members about their experiences of crime and violence and their opinions on solutions, while sharing safety information through podcasts and social media. GALA also collaborates with other community organizations throughout the year, and hosts free community events. Sharing Latino theater and the arts with the youth in our afterschool programs and the surrounding community is central to GALA’s mission of promoting and preserving Hispanic culture and heritage.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
It is thrilling to see how this generation of youth is so actively engaged in social issues and understands that the problems that affect any group impact us all. Their passionate pursuit of information and their persistence in holding power to account are promising indicators of the progress toward equity and opportunity they will spearhead in DC.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
I hope to see GALA Theatre and the arts continue their role in deepening our youths’ understanding of themselves, their empathy with others, and their pride in their culture and its place in the wider community.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
The Foundation supports and coordinates the Washington Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) youth and community outreach programs taking place throughout the city. We are especially proud of our DC PAL programming, taking place in Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8. Our DC PAL football team currently serves: Benning Park Deanwood Marshall Heights Lincoln Heights Projects Clay Terrace Projects
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
The D.C. Police Foundation (DCPF) works to provide resources for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in support of their mission to make D.C. a safer place to live, work, and visit. DCPF seeks to accomplish their mission by: I. Maintaining and spearheading youth programs in D.C.’s most challenging neighborhoods to enhance police and community relationships. II. Supporting the unmet needs of the MPD, identified by the Chief of Police, through both in-kind and financial assistance.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
Our organization helps build a stronger and safer community through our unique offering of varied youth programming. For example, by engaging youth as young as 4-5 years old in programs like Officer Friendly and the Side by Side Band, we are encouraging them to have open conversations with law enforcement officers, to share their stories and to ask questions. By engaging with youth in this open manner, the kids learn from the officers, but the officers learn even more from the youth. Officers learn the needs of the community and can better serve each neighborhood based on what they hear from their mentees. By working together and creating that relationship, everyone feels more comfortable and can better communicate in times of need as well. We have also had many youth become MPD officers over the last 10 years, wanting to make a positive difference in their own neighborhood.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
Our organization works directly with community members, schools, businesses, youth and the police department to develop and enhance programming that is felt to be most needed and beneficial to the community. The Youth Advisory Council is incredibly important, where youth meet regularly with the Chief of Police, sharing their visions and goals for police-community partnerships. All programs also include a component of financial literacy, so that we can teach youth and their families how to open bank accounts, budget, save and even invest. We feel that this is incredibly important to build a strong workforce and set all program youth up for success and financial independence.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
The youth who participate in our programming are so passionate about making the city a better place and about creating positive change within their neighborhoods. Listening to their ideas, dreams and then watching them work collaboratively with their law enforcement officer mentors on next steps to realize their goals has been incredibly exciting.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
We hope to continue to build out and expand our youth engagement programming, building positive relationships between law enforcement and the community. This will allow for the continuation of the youth program pipeline into career paths not only in public safety, but with partner organizations within the city. We hope to inspire those who live in the city to work hand in hand with law enforcement to make the city a safer place for everyone to live, work and visit.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
All communities/neighborhoods in DC!
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
We create equitable healing and dignified experiences for survivors of crime by providing free, trauma-informed advocacy, therapeutic, and legal services in conjunction with strategic litigation, policy advocacy, and education to transform existing responses to harm.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
Survivor-defined justice is the bedrock of NVRDC and guides everything that we do. This means that justice does not look the same for every survivor. NVRDC staff support each survivors unique vision and their chose path towards that goal. We do not say or believe that "we did what was best for our client" That assumes that NVRDC know what is best for them and not themselves.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
NVRDC believes that we empower folks by providing them with the tools they need to succeed such as learning how to be trauma-informed. By bringing trauma training to as many diverse sectors as possible, we are one step closer towards ensuring every crime victim has a dignified and empowered experience wherever they may turn for help.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
Youth in our community seem to stand up and be a voice for those who are receiving any sort of injustice. They are not scared to speak up and put actions in place to fight for what they believe in.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
NVRDC's goal is to create trauma-informed spaces everywhere possible.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
Life Pieces To Masterpieces serves Black and Brown boys and young men, ages 3 to adulthood, in Wards 7 and 8 of Washington, DC.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Life Pieces To Masterpieces develops character and leadership, unlocks potential, and prepares Black and Brown boys and young men to transform their lives and communities, with creative expression and “each one teach one” mentoring at the core. In a world that devalues and threatens the lives of Black and Brown men young and old, LPTM provides refuge for boys to break through negative self-images, tell authentic stories of their life experiences, and build strong bonds of brotherhood.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
LPTM provides over 1,200 hours per year of comprehensive out-of-school-time programming after school, during the summer, and on Saturdays. All programming supports the social-emotional, academic, emotional, physical, and civic development of our boys and young men. LPTM programming is entirely free for all youth and families and includes nutritious meals/snacks and door-to-door transportation in LPTM-owned vehicles between youths’ schools, LPTM’s programming site, and home each day, removing the two most frequently-cited barriers to accessing out-of-school-time programming nationwide: cost and safe transportation (Afterschool Alliance, 2022). Youth at LPTM–from age 3 into adulthood–have a safe, loving environment to express themselves; teach and uplift others as mentors; navigate societal barriers; and contribute positive change in their communities. Our boys see their futures beyond how society attempts to define them, surrounded by mentors–many of whom look like them, grew up in their neighborhoods, and understand their challenges and aspirations. Through their storytelling, self-expression, arts, leadership, and advocacy, our boys and young men change the world’s understanding of our shared humanity. LPTM boys and young men regularly speak up and speak out about issues important to them.
LPTM is a part of three major coalitions: the DC OST Coalition, which advocates for public and private local investment for community-based out-of-school-time programs; the DC Arts Education Alliance, which advocates for funding and access to the arts for all DC youth, and especially those from marginalized communities; and the Black Coalition for Health, which began as the Black Coalition Against Covid, fighting to get more resources and better, more trustworthy information into Black communities. LPTM’s authentic community relationships enabled us to aid families with important questions, while our commitment to always having a young person in every coalition meeting brought important insights to the coalition’s national leadership. LPTM’s coalitional work allows us to share ideas, best practices, youth voice, and advocacy strategies with 35+ local community-based organizations. Through this work, LPTM has been connected with two additional national organizations, Afterschool Alliance and MENTOR, where our young people have consistently reached national audiences to share the authentic stories of their live, become thought leaders advancing the importance of mentorship and safe afterschool spaces, and build a new narrative about Black and Brown boys and young men.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
LPTM’s growth as an organization has been co-designed by our first seven boys, and subsequent Apprentices over 28 years, together with families, schools, and neighborhoods in our communities East of the River. Black-led since our 1996 founding, our staff and leadership team have strongly reflected the DC neighborhoods that we serve. Our team has lived experience that helps our young people connect, feel understood, and develop a sense of belonging within our programs. LPTM youth are planners, decision-makers, and active partners in their own learning. As they grow in the program, they play a part in helping to shape each other’s lives as they become mentors and role models for their peers.
LPTM’s unique "each one teach one" mentoring model–woven throughout our programming continuum–both fosters leadership skills in mentors and provides a nurturing and relatable support system for mentees: Older peers serve as exemplars to their younger peers, providing social-emotional and academic support in classrooms in which they themselves were once enrolled as young boys. As mentors who share many of the same experiences, challenges, and aspirations as their mentees, and supported by their own peer and staff mentors, our young men develop confidence in their innate goodness and a foundation of self-belief. Through these practices, LPTM youth grow to understand their innate potential and continue to guide the work of LPTM in new ways. LPTM youth and alumni also co-facilitate our signature “Color Me Community” interactive workshop series, which guide participants to explore equity, inclusion, and implicit biases in a safe environment that opens the way to experiencing themselves and others as integral and valued parts of shared humanity.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
At Life Pieces To Masterpieces, we have always believed that it is not about us giving power to our boys and young men, but, rather, we believe that they have the innate creative ability to transform their lives and to enact positive change in their communities and their world. What excites me is that every single one of our boys and young men, when given the right opportunities, have the wherewithal to change challenges into possibilities. All that’s needed is a safe place and space for them to realize their own innate power.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
My dream is captured in the vision of Life Pieces To Masterpieces. It is that our boys and young men become catalysts for positive change throughout their communities, their country, and the world, and that they ultimately have the self-determination and confidence to chart out their own course in their lives.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
Access Youth serves at-risk middle and high school students in DC’s wards 6, 7, and 8.
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Access Youth’s mission is to keep vulnerable youth in school and out of the justice system through mediation, restorative justice, and positive youth development.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
For 15 years, Access Youth has helped build a safer community with restorative justice-based interventions to prevent violence among at-risk students. Access Youth delivers transformative programming to mitigate the impact of unresolved trauma, systemic racism, gender disparities, and cyclical poverty on student attendance, behavior, and academic performance. Access Youth’s full-time on-site Program Managers deliver individualized supports to 1000+ students yearly across our eight partner schools.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
Access Youth’s core programs––Restorative Justice in Schools and Truancy Prevention–– keep students engaged in their school communities and empower them with critical life and leadership skills. Our programs are rooted in equity––we lift up the voices and choices of the youth we serve. We meet each individual student where they are, with evidence-based supports and a trauma-informed approach that works to empower each individual to become the role models they deserve.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
Access Youth sees the potential in each and every one of our students. Their exciting accomplishments show the impact of our programs. Just last year we had 200+ Access Youth students on Honor Roll, ALL of our seniors graduated, and two of our students served as President and Vice President of the student body. We are inspired by their dedication and excited for their ongoing accomplishments.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
Every day, Access Youth actively works toward our dream: an equitable education system where every student receives the support they need to stay in school, learn to manage their emotions, and resolve conflicts without violence. We envision our middle and high school conferences growing into an integrated network of students that encompasses students across all DCPS schools and empowers students to advocate for themselves and restorative practices throughout their communities.
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1) Which Communities/Neighborhoods do you serve?
Ward 8 & Ward 1
2) In 2-3 sentences, please briefly describe the mission of your organization
Building Futures is a year long youth empowerment program designed to equip young individuals with the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to thrive in the modern workforce and become future leaders in their communities. Through a carefully structured three-phase approach, participants will engage in educational, practical, and entrepreneurial activities that foster personal growth, professional development, and community impact.
3) How does your organization help build a stronger, safer community?
Our youth co-op program can help build a stronger, safer community in a number of ways: Building Futures programs provide young people with valuable skills and experiences that will help them become more responsible and engaged members of the community. By providing young people with positive outlets for their energy and creativity, our program can help reduce the likelihood of them engaging in risky behaviors or criminal activities. Engaging in meaningful activities and building positive relationships can steer young people away from negative influences and towards a more positive path. Youth who participate in co-op programs often become more engaged in their communities. They may volunteer, participate in community events, or take on leadership roles, all of which contribute to building a stronger and safer community. Engaged youth are more likely to care about the well-being of their community and take action to improve it. Lastly , building future leaders. Our program can help identify and nurture the leadership potential of young people. By providing opportunities for youth to take on responsibilities, make decisions, and solve problems, these programs can help develop the next generation of community leaders who will work to make their communities safer and more vibrant. Overall, youth co-op program play a valuable role in building stronger, safer communities by empowering young people, fostering social connections, reducing crime, promoting community involvement, and developing future leaders.
4) How does your organization involve and empower community members in the work that you do? Please help us understand how this is important to your work.
By actively involving and empowering community members in their work, a youth co-op program can build stronger connections, foster collaboration, and create a more vibrant and inclusive community that benefits both youth participants and residents alike.
5) What excites you about the future for youth in your community?
The future is exciting for youth because of the opportunities for technological advancement, global connectivity, social change, entrepreneurship, education, diversity, inclusion, and climate action. With their energy, creativity, and passion, young people have the potential to shape a brighter and more sustainable future for themselves and generations to come. Lastly, Building a solidarity economy by participating in the cooperative movement to transform our perspectives and practices in economics.
6) As a leader, what are your dreams or aspirations for the future?
Creating intentional spaces for healing is essential to empower us to generate prosperity for the benefit of future generations. Safe communities with minimal crime.