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Quarterly 'Girls Weekends' have been held in my home for the last 3 years. Their ages range from 10-17. The group size is about 8-10 girls. They are encouraged to bring and work on homework on weekends during the school year. The last Girls Weekend was themed "My Queendom". We designed our own crowns and totes. We did a writing exercise describing what it means to be a Queen, gave a description of our Queendom and told why our Queendom is a positive example to the world. The girls played games that encouraged team work, getting to know one another, creativity, strategizing, compromise and conflict resolution. We take outings (zoo, roller/ice-skating, bus rides around town, art galleries, laser tag and restaurants).
I have a core group of great girls who are always interested in learning new lessons and taking new journeys with me. I am planning to allocate one of our weekends to get the girls involved in the community with volunteer work. I am going to show them the importance and benefits of volunteerism. I will show them that the giving of things is not always sufficient, but the giving of your time and actions is just as important.
I have an open door policy with the young ladies in my group. We also have open discussions about topics they feel are important to them. The girls are encouraged to use positive self expression to get their views across.
The purpose of my Girls Weekends are to empower women while they are in their youth, lead them to the knowledge of themselves, and instill in them the proper skills and etiquette needed as young women- all while having FUN!

P.I.N.K( Positive young women taking the Initiative to love and give, learn and grow, Never digressing but progressing in Knowledge of self and surroundings)

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Big Brothers Big Sisters has been the leader in youth mentoring services for more than a century. As America's most successful mentoring program, we know that one-to-one relationships with caring adults can make all the difference in a child's life.

Children matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister were:
46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
52% less likely to skip school
More confident in their performance at school
More likely to get along better with their families and peers

In Wake, Durham, and Orange Counties, there are approximately 32,000 at-risk youth. Our vision is to serve over 2,000 at-risk children by 2010 in these counties. You can help us with this goal!

Become a Big and make a difference in the life of a child!

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A group of junior and senior girls who meet with Freshman girls to guide them through the difficult and life altering first year of high school. The "Fish Guides" would hold meetings featuring group discussions with the Freshmen girls and helping them adjust socially without doing it all alone and making some big mistakes that could change their lives for the worse. Anyone who has attended high school knows that freshman year is hardest. Everyone wants to be accepted and will do things they may not want to do because they have gotten in with older kids (especially guys!) who take advantage of their innocence. The Fish Guides would help the girls know they're not alone and that they are not alone in making good decisions that would improve their freshman year and the following three years after that. Teen pregancy in Texas is the highest in the country. The dropout rate is escalating and drug use is becoming more and more common. Why? Because kids want to be popular and someone tells them that's how it's done. Why risk it? Set up a group that can guide these girls and change these statistics, one freshman at a time!

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Bridging the Gap (BTG) is a student-run service organization at the University of Virginia devoted to mentoring and tutoring refugee children resettled in the Charlottesville-Albemarle, VA area. BTG seeks to help refugee youth, typically ranging from 5 to 15 years of age, develop the tools necessary to obtain greater opportunities in U.S. society. BTG has only been in existence for one year yet includes over 90 student volunteers mentoring and tutoring nearly 80 refugee children.

The children in our program come from Somalia, Kenya, Congo, Thailand, Togo, Russia, and Burma. The organization is a Chartered Independent Organization (CIO) through the University of Virginia and we are considering becoming a 501(c)3. Almost 1000 refugees, about 100-200 a year, from all around the world have resettled from their native countries to Charlottesville, VA. They primarily arrive through the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a refugee resettlement nonprofit with its smaller US chapter in Charlottesville. Many of the children are living outside of a refugee camp for the first time in their lives.

We believe that BTG mentoring services can improve the children’s often traumatized mental health, and our tutoring services can facilitate a faster English language learning process for them – two essential prerequisites to their social and academic success. Using the children's library we created from scratch last spring, we are developing an incentives-based reading program for the children. It could prove very valuable in motivating the children to read more, enjoy reading, and hence improve their English skills.

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Writer's Workshop is a mentoring program that fosters a reading and writing interest in elementary and middle school students through lessons beyond the average classroom. We aim to create a network of passionate high school mentors dedicated to making a difference in their community by promoting a writing interest in students. We are primarily involved in changing and improving students’ attitude and vision of writing by help younger students develop their style by exploring the various writing genres and eventually helping them form their own.

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Brandon S.Sowell, age 18 has started a community development corporation that is overtly focused to reaching young males between the ages of 7-18, to provide advocacy and information to stop gang involvement, drug, alcohol and substance abuse and distribution, youth crime activities, violence and inter-community prejudices. Brandon S. Sowell has become a community advocate of violent crimes and abuses again women and teen girls. This corporation was named "B" Focused because of the need for today's youth to focus on getting education and proper positive development that will assist in empowering each other. Peer 2 Peer counseling has been very effective, since peers have such strong influence on each other, Positive Peer Pressure, Do The Right Thing, P.O.E (Process OF Elimination-(thinking before you act or react) ABC's-(Attitude Behavior Consequences) and "7-Up" are several programs developed by Brandon Sowell to assist in reaching the youth in our communities. We have formed rallies and focus groups to better assist in meeting the needs of those involved in gangs, drugs and even those that have been incarcerated. Brandon's vision is to also provide rehabilitation and job search assistance to those that are being released from prisons and juvenile detention centers to provide direction in re-entering the community as a reformed and productive citizen.By encouraging young teens, pre-teens and young adult males with support groups,education in life coping skills development, job search and retainment, education-getting back to the books-a program for encouraging school drop outs to return to school or complete their education.
Because of the interest that Do something has in doing something to empower youth we are requesting a grant for $ 500.00 to produce and pass out literature to educated parents on signs of gang affiliation in their children, and signs of drug use and abuse, and to host a Parent-Teen "link up" which will have parents and teens together to get education on Holistic methods to help each other "B" Focused!!

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This program is a peer youth mentoring program for students aged 12 - 16, where students not only focus on enhancing their academic studies but learn to be successful in life through computer learning, travel and community service and leadership projects and activities. We have been responsible for helping a local early childhood education center seek and obtain funding to develop a new play area for their students aged 3 - 9 and are currently working on a project where we are helping them obtain funding for a youth playground for their students aged 10 - 13. We work with the Maryland Food Bank to offer meals to families in the community. We work with the local health department and a non-profit organization in community Tobacco Cessation awareness programs. We meet monthly at my house or at my grandmother's house to discuss ways of helping the community, especially the youth. My personal focus in on becoming a culinary chef, and one day owning my own restaurant but right now I am focused on my academics, encouraging others to do the same and helping those people who are less fortunate than myself.