|
The feature below is brought to you by Cobb Collaborative, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  Strengthening community through collaborationThe Cobb Collaborative sees beautiful in our work because it is a reflection of our community – diverse and accepting of the people who live, work, play and pray in Cobb County. Our organization accomplishes the critical work of improving outcomes for children and families by educating and engaging partners, leading and facilitating collaborations, and providing capacity-building resources for organizations solving major issues in our community like reading proficiency, homelessness, mental health issues and civic engagement. Our partners include nonprofit organizations, local government, businesses, faith-based organizations, educational institutions, professional organizations, associations and citizens who are committed to working together in service to others. We are privileged to see beautiful through our work each and every day. We see beautiful when our Homelessness Strategy Team convenes, learns about the challenges law enforcement members face when they discover homeless families and then strategizes about resources and ways to support not only the homeless, but also the police officers. We see beautiful every time children are encouraged to take gently loved books home with them from one of the many sites that distribute books we collect. We see beautiful when we share a new community resource with social workers and caseworkers that will support the individuals they serve. We communicate beauty and the dignity of every human being with resources that encourage social justice, racial equity, and inclusion. Our organization stands for improved outcomes for children and families - ALL children and families. The populations we serve, who are often the most vulnerable, under-resourced, and underrepresented, deserve culturally competent care. Our civic engagement initiative provides educational resources, training opportunities, and opportunities for candid conversations in safe spaces to address the long-standing issues of systemic racism and injustice. We appreciate that education and awareness is the first step towards becoming more empathetic towards our fellow man, and that this is a journey in which we, as community leaders in the social services space, take a leadership position. We invite readers to visit our resource page and share your feedback with us. Finding beauty in everything isn't always easy. We launched our Mind Your Mind mental health initiative in 2019 to raise awareness, reduce stigma and promote resiliency about mental health. Behavioral health issues are not beautiful, but the person struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction or another condition is always beautiful. We also recognize that the pandemic has caused even more fear, stress and worry among our residents. We view the practice of mindful self-compassion as a way to cope with the uncertainties, feelings of loss and regret that the public health emergency has wrought. We also see mindful self-compassion as a resource for our community to encourage them to see the beauty in each day, in each moment. From a half-day workshop, to a Lunch & Learn series, to on-demand videos and meditation breaks, we are elevating the importance of love and acceptance of self. As Christopher Germer, co-founder of the Mindful Self-Compassion training program states “Self compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.” We think this is one of the most beautiful statements ever. Our proposed journaling project will allow individuals to learn more about themselves, reflect on different experiences and their reactions to those situations, then use personal expression to record their feelings. Journaling has been found to enhance both mental and physical well-being, and along with a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, lots of water and adequate sleep can lead to great improvement in the quality of one’s life. Keeping a journal can help identify what’s causing stress or anxiety and facilitate the steps taken to resolve the problem. Personal growth and reduced stress contribute to a more whole and happy society - what could be more beautiful than that? Submitted by Irene BartonExecutive Director, Cobb Collaborative
0 Comments
The feature below is brought to you by Hope for Justice, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  A lighthouse for childrenPoverty is a major issue in Kampala pushing children to migrate, and into situations of child exploitation. Additional factors such as family breakdown, lack of access to education and community attitudes contribute to children migrating to the city to escape and, or, to look for work to support themselves and their family. Bulamu Lighthouse will directly benefit girls living in the slum communities of Kampala, Uganda who are trapped in a cycle of poverty and abuse. Our experience highlights that girls are at a higher risk of being trafficked into domestic or commercial sex work. The current estimates of people living in modern slavery in Uganda are 304,000 (Global Slavery Index, 2018). The common cases are exploitation of children through the worst forms of child labor, primarily in commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor in industries such as street work, domestic work etc. Children are being used in illicit activities such as drug smuggling and production of pornography, as well as in general street vending and begging. In the urban slum communities of Katwe, Kibuye, Kisenyi and Kivulu, there are high numbers of refugees and migrants who are in slavery, specifically girls who are in commercial sexual exploitation or forced marriages. This project particularly targets the empowerment of young vulnerable girls who will rise to be included in the economic structures of their communities. Hope for Justice operates Lighthouse Assessment Centers (“Lighthouses”) where we provide accommodation, care and protection for children. A Lighthouse is a safe place where a child can access holistic care as they work to overcome their trauma, restore their lives and prepare them for reintegration into family or community-based care. Bulamu Lighthouse is specifically for female victims of sex trafficking up to the age of 18, offering a 12-week stabilization period and can house up to 25 girls at any one time. Victims are highly traumatized with a number of issues resulting from their abuse and stabilization requires intense therapy and a high degree of personal care. Issues include mental health illnesses, difficulty trusting, relationship development problems, in addition to physical health issues and diseases. Dealing with the complex trauma requires an intensive, tailored program of recovery with healthcare professionals, counsellors and teachers, in addition to cooks, cleaners, house mothers, security guards and drivers. Your funding support will enable us to protect young girls and women living in the slum communities of Kampala from exploitation and abuse, through the provision of vocational skills, education and training. So that they are able to live sustainable independent lives that allow them to economically support themselves and their families and contribute to their local economy’s. A donation of $1,000 - $5,000 will help to cover college fees for some vulnerable girls to receive accelerated vocational training. The cost per girl is circa $350. Our organisation has been working in Uganda supporting highly vulnerable children, families and their communities for over 20 years, therefore possessing detailed knowledge of the issues vulnerable girls face and the specialist support they need. Through this project girls like Maria will be given an opportunity to come off exploitative situations. Maria lived with her grandmother in a destitute household in a Kampala slum. She lost her mother to HIV/AIDS and has herself lived with HIV since birth. Trapped in a cycle of extreme poverty and vulnerability, Maria found herself forced into commercial sexual exploitation in the brothel adjacent to her home. With several men abusing her, Maria conceived. At the age of 16, she gave birth to a baby with hydrocephalous without knowing who the father was. When Hope for Justice came into contact with her, Maria was very lonely and stigmatized. After watching at a distance, she enrolled for life skills training with other out of school youths in her community and that marked the turning point in her life. She said - “For the first time in my life I feel valued. I am no longer the hopeless young mother of the big headed baby but a unique girl with special abilities. I am a mother of a beautiful baby girl that I must raise well. I have learnt to make decisions that keep me safe. I must use my skills and talents to earn a decent living. I love tailoring”. Maria then enrolled for apprenticeship training in tailoring. When the local artisan tried to lure her into sexual exploitation, she was resilient enough to resist and report this to our staff. She was then moved to a vocational training school where she completed her training. We supported Maria with start-up tools and she is now self-employed within her community. She was able to take her baby for reconstructive surgery and continues to provide for her with pride. Maria is living her dream: a life of freedom from slavery. The long-term impact of this project is 100 women like her, living independent lives and forging safe and stable communities no longer threatened by exploitation. As an organization, we also work to influence policies and practice at a local and national level through evidence informed advocacy for children and young people who are in exploitation – child labor, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation etc. Hope for Justice is currently active in a number of national networks such as the National Taskforce Committee on Prevention of Trafficking in Persons, National Child Protection Working Group, Alternative Care Coordinating Committee, as well as District OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Committees. We also provide training for frontline duty bearers equipping them with knowledge and skills to prevent, identify and handle cases of human trafficking. We have also finalized the enumeration research report documenting the numbers and characteristics of children who are living and working on the streets in Kampala, Iganga, Jinja and Mbale (copy available on request). Submitted by Isabelle BryanThe feature below is brought to you by Love Beyond Walls, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  No one is invisibleLove Beyond Walls is committed to serving people currently experiencing homelessness with dignity, to lead them on the path to self-sufficiency in ways that are unique to each person. We are committed to creating a world where no one is invisible. We fight for equity, narrative justice, and inclusion of our neighbors without an address daily. In fact, we believe that just because a person does not have an address does not mean that they are not our neighbor. Whether through providing visibility, shelter, grooming, community, or support services - beauty is at the heart of how we practice presence and proximity with our community. Below are a couple of projects that embody creating equal access for our neighbors experiencing homelessness: The Clean Break Project: A few weeks ago, one of my friends experiencing homelessness told me he used buckets to collect rainwater to take showers or to clean himself. He told me he would literally have to sit the bucket in the sun all day to get it warm enough to clean up. He said it was great that organizations bring out showers, but they are never around throughout the week. And so, we had an idea to take old 250-gallon tanks and turn them into self-contained showers for people experiencing homelessness to have access to sanitation around the clock, when they need to, not dependent on when someone else decides to help. Why? Because as Dr. King says, "The time is always right to do what is right." We had the opportunity to address the issue of the lack of sanitation through handwashing through our 'Love Sinks In' campaign nationwide, and now we wanted to give people access to showers when they needed them instead of having to wait on an organization's shower truck to pull up. John, one of our community members experiencing homelessness, was the first person to use our showers. He told us he sometimes goes days without being able to get a shower. It's incredible how much impact something as simple as a hot shower can make. When John got out of the shower, John told us he felt clean and ready to get off the streets. And so, our new campaign name was born: The Clean Break Project. Providing one more stepping stone for our community members on the road to new beginnings and opportunities. We are so excited to build more of these self-contained showers around the city and country! Also we are working on a series of videos to build empathy. 'Find Your Why' Docu-series: Our latest endeavor is our empathy-building docuseries, "Find Your Why." As this pandemic has extended, the community and our nation need more than sanitation and physical health; communities are in great need of humanity and empathy for others to make it through these times together. Because of this need, we are now dedicated to developing virtual empathy training for adults and students! As you may know, on May 18th, we are partnering to launch a new book entitled, When We Stand with Intervarsity Press. One of our main goals by releasing this book is to help people worldwide understand what they are capable of when they use their gifts to collaborate with others. Most of us have been isolated from so many people because of the pandemic, and this leaves us feeling hopeless, but when we mobilize and act together, we empower each other to do what we can't do on our own—and solve justice issues. The main narrative centers around the main idea: A person needs community to discover and sustain their work. We want people to take a small step toward finding their why/personal discovery. We want people to go deeper into their existing relationships, build new perspectives and tear down false narratives. Our community members who experience homelessness spend each day and night feeling no sense of inclusion in the world around them. Cars drive past them, and people walk by them. Everyday citizens avert their gaze and maybe even cross the street to avoid them. They are made to feel less than human. Love Beyond Walls aims to see this part of our community for who they are and who they will become. Developing empathy is crucial to ensuring that people experiencing homelessness are seen and supported, and respected—our training allows people the opportunity to understand and share the feelings of people experiencing homelessness. This project focuses on helping to humanize people who are marginalized and made invisible through laws, ordinances, and biases that stereotype their entire existence. It will teach the target audience to be more inclusive and more equitable in their engagement and involvement with their neighbors without an address. It will also teach that just because someone doesn't have a physical address does not mean that they are not neighbors. And so, this project is about embracing the whole community. We get a chance to talk about that in-depth through this training program. A part of equity is deeply connected to having our existence affirmed and not hurt people's access to resources. More vitally, it is about being seen as worthy of having access to resources. The reason people don't have equity is because their very existence has not been seen as something beautiful and worthy of being included. This is what we are fighting for at Love Beyond Walls. Our resources will provide vital social justice empathy training for police precincts in Georgia, public school systems, homeless shelters, college students, and for any organization with a drive to learn more. We are seeking to bring people together to create a world of empathy. A world full of equity, inclusivity, and justice is a beautiful world. Love Beyond Walls strives to make the world a more beautiful place for ALL to live in together. Submitted by Terence LesterExecutive Director, Love Beyond Walls The feature below is brought to you by 3D Girls, Inc., an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here. Divinely Devoted and Drive = 3DImagine a world without poverty. A world without struggle. A world where every person has the same opportunities and access to achieve self-sufficiency. 1.4 million people are living in poverty across the globe; 70% are women and girls. Women and girls living in poverty is a global epidemic. 3D Girls, Inc. exists to address the critical disparities that limit young women and girls the ability to thrive. The mission of 3D Girls, Inc. is to educate and empower young women to be advocates for themselves and their families through mentoring, prenatal and parent education and social/emotional wellness. To that end, we are committed to being: DIVINELY focused on breaking barriers that limit the achievement of women and girls. DEVOTED to the highest standards of stewardship for our clients, stakeholders, and the communities we serve. DRIVEN to develop innovative solutions for building the future workforce of women in S.T.E.A.M.  Circumstances involving an increase in family/relationships issues, substance abuse, health issues, job or financial troubles pose a threat to one’s well-being. According to experts, “teaching coping skills at an early age and promoting emotional and social connectedness” helps to enhance a sense of belonging and support. 3D Girls, Inc. began in the summer of 2012 as a mentoring program to build connectedness among girls. After becoming a young mother, our founder was inspired by the mentors, teachers, and leaders who helped her accomplish her goals, and had a vision of giving back by providing mentorship opportunities to youth. Beginning with a mentorship program for eight girls, our founder and volunteers provided a variety of educational and cultural experiences. Upon graduating, many of the girls went on to college, joined the military, and/or got jobs to support their families. 3D Girls, Inc.’s services have grown exponentially over the years. In 2014, we introduced the L.E.A.G.U.E. Mentoring Model (Ladies Empowering Adolescent Girls Using Exposure), which is our school-based program that provides girls K-12 with tiered, research-based group mentoring experiences. In 2016 we responded to the need for assistance to teen mothers through the T.E.A.M. Project (Teens Engaging As Mothers). This program empowers teen mothers to develop their potential as self-sufficient citizens and role models through a ten-week program that teaches maternal health, financial literacy, and career training. Additionally, our T.E.A.M. Project provides free community baby showers to engage the community with local health and wellness resources and provide participants with essential baby care products. In 2017, we launched the D.R.I.P.S. program (Discovering Realities in Painting & STEM), which encourages exploration, discovery, and social and emotional wellness through STEAM activities. The Girls Link Up virtual mentoring experience was brought to life in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since our inception, 3D Girls, Inc. has mobilized on the ground to distribute over 200,000 diapers, wipes, blankets, and other essential baby care items to over 250 mothers, hosted over 75 sessions bringing awareness to social and emotional wellness through creativity and exploration, and have 40 mentors that educate, empower, and advocate for 132 girls participating in our after-school programs. In 2021, we plan to launch The Rose House, which will provide a continuum of care for women and their children through transitional housing, coaching, and engagement, with a specific focus on school-aged mothers who are facing chronic homelessness, have a lack of social and emotional support or are transitioning out of DFACs Care. As a transitional housing facility, our goal is to build a strong community that supports new and expectant mothers who have been faced with obstacles to develop a plan for their future successes. Promoting economic empowerment and self-sufficiency through our one-on-one coaching is how mothers are taught workforce development skills and financial literacy. 3D Girls, Inc. intentionally invests in our organization’s culture and structure developing leaders from within. This includes board development training, maternal mental health training, seminars, and workshops that educate and empower our staff and volunteers to deliver our mission effectively to our clients. As we strive towards this new level of impact, we believe that our mission of educating and empowering will help to alleviate social disadvantages among young women and girls. Submitted by Raioni Madison-Jones Executive Director of 3D Girls, Inc. The feature below is brought to you by Carolina Dance Collaborative, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about our giving initiatives, please click here. To learn more about the featured organization, please visit their website here.  Dance like no one is watching.The Carolina Dance Collaborative is a mobile dance outreach organization with an extensive dance education curriculum that incorporates individual creativity, healthy living, and developing life-skills to reach all populations and demographics in Greenville County and the Upstate. We see beauty each and every day when we have the privilege of working with children in underserved communities, senior citizens, disability organizations, schools, and community centers. We travel to their space and help participants develop healthy life-skills that will impact them beyond the dance classroom and into their homes and everyday lives. Carolina Dance Collaborative (CDC) seeks to be an example of inclusion for the arts in our city. We love nothing more than to see all ages, those with and without disabilities, and all economic backgrounds dancing together; powerfully demonstrating how dance can impact lives through creating diversity in our world. CDC’s mission provides an inclusive model and a mobile model to make dance accessible to ALL people in our community. CDC values inclusion and equity through our mission to give all people access to dance education regardless of location, ability, and resources. We believe that every individual should experience and embody the life changing power of dance. One of the main stereotypes that CDC tries to break is the idea that dance is reserved for a particular body type, age, ethnic origin, and financial status. Dance is for everyone and is beneficial for everyone! With that being said, opportunities to dance are not typically created for populations who do not fit into the standard definition of a dance class participant. CDC seeks to reach low income youth who do not have the transportation, money, or resources necessary to experience extracurricular activities that engage their mind and body. With help from See Beautiful’s funding we specifically desire to give these under-resourced children the same opportunity as other children who have the necessary means to pay for dance classes. We partner with a variety of schools and after school programs to do this. Wheatley Montessori School is one of our partners whose population is both economically and racially diverse, which adds to the beauty of their school. They are one of the few private Montessori schools in the state that accepts vouchers for tuition assistance. Sixty percent of their students receive state vouchers and the school's owners also provide scholarships to deserving students. The Montessori Method is of special importance in closing the achievement gap that exists between low-income and minority students and their majority peers. Through creative movement and a variety of other dance styles like African, Ballet, Jazz, and Hip-Hop, The Carolina Dance Collaborative serves to augment the Montessori Method; as dance helps students make the required concrete to abstract connections which are necessary as they develop knowledge, skill, and understanding about the world. For a majority of the students, it is also the first time they are experiencing a structured dance class which is why equity is one of Carolina Dance Collaborative’s core values that ensures that our participants have full and equal access to opportunities that enable them to lead healthy lives. Our classes ensure that inclusion remains a focus as we do not require prior knowledge or skill set, purchased attire, nor payment to participate in this particular partnership. Therefore, we can fully serve each child by teaching them foundational content and building on the skill sets they already have while not charging them tuition. We empower the youth that we serve to make creative decisions for themselves, their bodies, and their interaction with their peers in order to foster a true sense of belonging in the classroom and know that their presence is valued. Peace, justice, and harmony within our classes is also vital to our student’s success. Movement and connecting with others in a class setting releases chemicals to the brain that calms the mind and strengthens the body. While dancing, the mind-body connection is developed and a new sense of awareness is created. Mirror neurons in the brain also have the ability to produce a human capacity for emotions such as empathy, compassion, attachment, and social bonding through the use of dance and movement. Dance promotes emotional and physical healing for some, therefore harmony with one another quickly develops in our sessions. Every student, every age, every background, and every ability is valued within CDC and the positive atmosphere we seek to make for our students and their experience with dance education. We are so thrilled that See Beautiful gets the chance to be a part of that (even if it is from afar). We are grateful! Blog Submitted by Kelsey CrumExecutive Director, Carolina Dance Collaborative |
See beautiful in yourself.
|
RSS Feed
