On Monday, January 16, 2021, Essence of a Lady, Inc, in partnership with Martin Luther King Foundation President, Mr. Gary Thomas, Prentyce Robinson and Brent Figgs, Jr, we launched the Y-ME? Mentoring Program for Boys.
Every year, Essence of a Lady, Incorporated celebrates National Mentoring Month with our YELL!Mentoring program for school-age girls and our philanthropic program, E'Ladies Network. Women, girls, sponsors, and supporters come together to learn more about mentoring, sign up to volunteer, register girls to participate in our upcoming programs and events, and make pledges/donations to support the programs and events.
This year, we took on the charge to help school-age boys through the Y-ME? Mentoring program. Through research, we discovered minority boys go to the juvenile justice system 6 times more than their white counterparts. It shows there is a "large gap seen in education, earnings, health, employment, neighborhood safety, workforce development and encounters with the law enforcement and justice system for this population" (MBKHouston, 2016). Our goal is to focus on career, leadership, social, and job skills. In 2017, our focus is to educate, mentor, and empower 50-100 male youth between 8-18 years old.
Our partnership with Martin Luther King Foundation us to have a meeting space for board and other important meetings and our partnership with Temple Gym and Fitness Center enables us to set up the events and provide materials and supplies for the educational activities, food, and event coordination.
We are extremely excited to work with a targeted audience of male youth through school and church groups. In addition, our desire is to kick off this critical initiative for boys at the New Life Evangelistic Center in Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida.
After over 33 years, Essence of a Lady, Incorporated has worked in schools and the community supporting small business women and school-aged girls. We are excited to build a collaboration of faith-based, community, small-business, and this 501(c)3 sustainable nonprofit to empower our most vulnerable population, boys and young men of color.
To register to attend the event, volunteer, or sponsorship information, complete the form below.