AYEDNICOLE

       One of my biggest passions in life has always been to help enlighten people to do better, especially African Americans in my generation.  It saddens me to see young blacks still pursuing some of the highest of social issues of African Americans as a society. Although there are successful black people  in this world, there is still room for improvement for our people as a whole, because African Americans are still high for dropout rates, crime/ incarceration, female prostitution, and teen pregnancy. If I was thirty years old and had the chance to commence a new program to help stop these issues, my program would be called Inspirations 4 Life. The mission of this organization will be to encourage and mentor African Americans in different communities by enhancing higher education, volunteer involvements to help decrease crime rates and increase community service, and female mentoring programs to focus on the issue of stopping prostitution and lowering the teen pregnancy rate.  Inspirations 4 Life will be designated to make sure that young black people will see and understand that  they are capable of becoming more than what they settle to be, and to help stop the repetitiveness  of the negative outlook of African Americans.

            Enhancing higher education will be one of the main projects within Inspirations 4 Life.  The dropout rate for African American students is 16 to 25, which is higher compared to whites within the same age range. In order to bring the dropout rate down and make sure that African American students are on the right path for graduating high school and pursuing higher education, my new program will have group and one-on-one tutoring sessions for different academic areas to help strengthen these students with their  educational goals, test scores, and GPA. I want to make sure that black students have the same passion and drive as any other race to stay in school and to believe that they can be successful.  It seems as if one of the biggest problems for African Americans and education is that most still have the mentality that just because they are black they will not succeed like other races. By building up the Inspirations 4 Life organization, providing the positive leadership to influence these young African Americans to improve in their  educational plans to pursue an interest in going to college and a career will enhance brighter futures and less doubts.

            Another goal my program will offer is getting more African Americans involved in their communities with community service. This is a very important part of my organization because African Americans are known to be the second highest race involved in gang violence and African American youth are more at-risk than any other racial/ethnic background known for getting involved in crimes. Since the juvenile delinquency caseload and prison inmate are triggered to predominately black males, , I want to have a part of Inspirations 4 Life to focus on getting these young black males off the streets with participating in illegal activities and focus more on getting involved with positivity of giving back and improving their communities with less crime and gun violence. It’s been noted that most low income black teens residing in socially disorganized communities are most likely to commit crimes than any other youth. By getting these teens involved in volunteering organizations will help promote positive influences in their communities.  By promoting these good choices, I hope that this impact can result in more healthy lifestyles and a higher possibility for them to less likely get involved in at-risk behaviors.

“Another girl damaged by the system.” That is how society and statistics depict black women because we are most likely targeted for prostitution than any other race. Also, arrest data for prostitution has shown that low income black women are mostly victims.  The biggest problem with this social issue is that black women and young girls who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation make themselves become heavily involved within prostitution and that is their way of feeling accepted. However, I believe that African American women are worth more than degrading themselves for money by participating in sexual activity. My organization, Inspirations 4 Life will offer female mentoring sessions and motivational speakers to help these women to stop getting involved in prostitution, and to learn how to respect themselves with dignity and pride. As well, teen pregnancy is another issue amongst black females. Most young black females who are pregnant end up being single mothers in need of help with caring for their children as well as making it in life. What I would include in my program to help assist these mothers is mentoring sessions for parenting, and encouraging these young moms to pursue educational plans. In my program, the main priority to help young black women with children is to get them to understand that a child is a blessing, not a struggle; you only make your situation a struggle if you do not believe that you can overcome.

            I have come to the conclusion that the biggest problem with the African American community is the emotional pain that blacks have. This pain comes from the results of our inability to understand and take pride of our unique individuality of our African American identities.  Given the chance to initiate my organization Inspirations 4 Life will help end the repeated cycle of hopeless doubts for my people and bring forth the motivation for the black youth. As an African American myself,  I believe it is time  to take pride and understand that we as the African American community need to help one another to better ourselves, and better our future; because in order to see a change, there must be courage to motivate.