Our Mission Our Dream Speaks to "The Catalyze Challenge"

 

The Catalyze Challenge seeks solutions to the question: How might we reimagine education for young people in grades 6-14 to better prepare them to access career success and economic opportunity?

Reimagining the education of young people begins with igniting their curiosity, teaching them facts about their neighborhood past while appealing to their creative minds to make an innovative change to their surroundings. Through tapping into the instilled interest of a child is the key to education. Providing a hands-on approach to understanding and appreciation by developing their natural-born gifts in a process to their neighborhood stories to restore self-pride and instill an appreciation of who they are and from whence they came. The concept of "teaching houses" arises the need to nurture our youth, provide them with an urge to repair through teaching the young to appreciate the past; the success of the future seems inevitable. With these "teaching houses," it is our goal to renovate/preserve the home of an affluent member (meaning one who had a positive impact on the area youth) and celebrate the positive nature of the community as it once was. Say, for example, The Deanwood community in Washington DC, has a wealth of history lodged within its boundaries; backbones of this community include 1) the Sheriff family (Murry's Steaks Inc) 2) the Hall family (Coach "Sal" Hall-Cardozo Clerks 3) the Hill family ("Buck" Hill) World-renowned Jazz Musician, to name a few. . Teaching the youths, giving them career training while instilling pride and promise while restoring the home of the forgotten neighborhood heroes, presenting a piece of history in scalable size, representing all of the forgotten heroes which led to the development of the neighborhood while enriching the lives of these children and allowing them to thrive, is the mission of the organization, one home, one neighborhood at a time.

Who does your solution serve? Please share demographic information about target participants and other beneficiaries of your program.

Our solution of the “teaching house” concept serves the economically challenged people of urban areas. Areas that once were thriving positive points in their lives but have been overtaken by distress and disparity. We intend on reaching out to the communities to find people who want to make a positive change, those who are willing to teach the youths of this era trade skills, for which they will be able to make a living wage. Our intent reinvests into the neighborhood and aids the residents to become self-sufficient as youths, young adults, and elders.

What are the desired impact and outcomes you will achieve through your program? How will you measure your performance in achieving them? *

The desired impact is to get residents involved in the success of their communities through education, participation, performance, and accountability. We strive to see all neighborhood participants become self-sufficient, positive contributors to the development of their community and beyond. Our position is to motivate all participants into genuinely caring about the community as a whole. When this happens, they will reach out to other communities and impact a ripple effect of self-appreciation, discipline, and unity. It begins with just one. Our organization will determine an assessment for success in the project through essays, observations, surveys, and comparison techniques utilizing statistics of before, during, and after the span of the program.

 

 

What is the amount of grant funding you are requesting, and how do you plan to use it? *

We are requesting $50,000.00 to ignite our project; this is necessary to begin implementing our project of influencing and teaching individuals to become self-sufficient. Tools required for recruiting the right students for learning, although everyone who wants to participate will be given the opportunity through various avenues of the program, placement within the program is what we will need to determine. Funds are appropriate for staffing, business operations, insurance, materials such as wood may be necessary, and permits; as we already have our first renovation project, we will need all of the elements required to make this program a success.

Please share the elements that excite you most or that you are eager to test, such as a component of your program design, program delivery, business model, population(s) served, partnership approach, etc

The elements of our projects that excite and drive us are to spark curiosity and operate within the young mind by participating with trade artisans in renovation, preservation, architecture, and sharing appreciation of the not-so-distant past. We want to share a “like mind” consciousness that the past orders the present and the future steps of our young people. It is not “self-minded,” but we together can create and substantiate a more gifted and influential tomorrow. Knowing that the past changes the present and projects the future of positive, thriving young adults, that are truly capable of making definitive contributions through growth. 

 

Please share an overview of who will work on this project, including their relevant experience, and their familiarity with the populations and communities the team intends to serve.

Our organization has contacted two District of Columbia fraternal orders for assistance, The Prince Hall Free Masons and the National Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi; these groups are groundsmen with a series of professional members in almost every area that will trend. The populations and communities our team will service are urban city areas, beginning within Washington D.C. Even though the District of Columbia has its Cultural Organizations, its focus is not on the "forgotten heroes of our neighborhoods." Renovation and preservation are areas that we want to focus. Our goal is to focus on the youth that has not had appropriate opportunities to learn the backbone of the neighborhoods in which they reside.

What stakeholder perspectives or data have informed your idea? How have you incorporated this information into your solution design? *

The uprising social divide within the region is what specifically influenced the groundwork for our organization, as all of us are Native to the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) area. The crime rate has raged rapidly, more so since the District of Columbia legalized gun ownership, and the use of illegal drugs is a constant killer of our youth. Therefore, bringing this program to communities is paramount to the survival of its residents and a reasonable faith effort in teaching the child to thrive.  Grandparents or great grandparents influenced and solidified the neighborhoods; with the shift in cultural exchange, the gift to the community will come full circle as the youths take a stake in the renovation and preservation of specific sites, and learn from the miniature replicas of the communities, what once was and what could be soon. As the saying goes, “it takes a village.”

For qualifying applicants, we anticipate providing supports for both leaders and programs that help move the idea forward.

Are there specific optional supports that would be helpful to you as a leader and / or to your program over the next year? Examples may include peer mentoring, networking opportunities with employers, etc. *

 

Yes, there are support areas that, if available, would be appreciated. For example, as mentioned, networking with community leaders and educators, fund-raising, publicizing and conducting fund-raising campaigns, advertising the program for community awareness.