Healthy Food Healthy Lifestyles!
Vital Stats
Amber W
Lake Worth, FL- people helped8000
- People Doing It5000
The Problem
See it
Hot Spot is an afterschool program for high school teens who are an active advocacy group serving both young and old alike in the community. The mission is to develop future leaders while fostering nurturing adult relationships. The dropout rate is a staggering 49.5% at our local high school with a majority of the students dropping out between 9th and 10th grade. We are nestled in the middle of a very low income neighborhood where there were 289 juvenile arrests in 2008. Hot Spot is a much needed program that offers hope to teens in our community by providing a safe and structured place for teen’s afterschool. Unfortunately, due to economic hardships and constant budget cuts it is difficult to obtain the materials and program supplies needed to complete our planned community service projects. We are lacking adequate space, furnishings and are in need of upgraded technical equipment and a new kitchen to teach and educate teens in the community about healthy living and nutrition in order to serve additional teens.
Plan of Action
Build it
Hot Spot is in need of extra space, a renovated kitchen, kitchen supplies and cookware, furnishings, recreational and program supplies and much more to support the academic and career exploration sessions and the successful “Nutritional Education and Cooking” program. Obtaining additional funds in order to expand and renovate facilities to benefit the Hot Spot program in this capacity will help increase enrollment and benefit proactive community measures. Our teens are entrepreneurs at heart and are always thinking of projects to help raise money in order to fund their dreams. We are now in the process of making our own business selling handmade crafts to subsidize program expenses. Other fundraising efforts include; ”Parent’s Night Out” for our aftercare families, yard sales for our neighborhood, car washes and candy/popcorn sales at community events. We also have a phenomenal dance team that is putting on a show in February for the community. Finding additional funds for the Hot Spot program would really be a “dream come true!”
