LIVE Change Program VUU

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The Virginia Union University Sydney Lewis School of Business (SLSB) is proud to partner with Youth Corporation, Incorporated to launch “Live Change”, a program designed to educate, mentor, and advocate on behalf of at risk youth in the Richmond Metropolitan Area who are faced with challenges that could potentially prevent them from transitioning from high school into college or other careers that could assist them in becoming a part of the economic fabric of the Richmond Metropolitan Area. The program is designed to prevent the pipeline from high school to incarceration.

“Live Change “is being managed by interns in the Sydney Lewis School of Business under the direction of Dr. Delta R. Bowers.  The founder of Youth Corporation, Incorporated, Ms.  Elizabeth Charity, introduced the idea to the SLSB as an opportunity for the SLSB student interns to manage and run the company from conception to deployment and serve as mentors to the students.  The student interns are engaged with real life experiences inclusive of opening a bank account with Towne Bank, developing the Bylaws, meeting with politicians and community leaders, interviewing with radio and television outlets, public relations and social media campaign, and engaging with law enforcement officials. Ms. Charity, an advocate for juveniles believes that this model of involving college students in the conversation and the advocacy for endangered at risk youth could prove to be a significant change in the landscape to thwart the pipeline for youth from high school to incarceration.  Dr. Delta R. Bowers, who oversees the interns in the SLSB believes that engaging young men and women who are college students in the process of preventing the high school to incarceration pipeline is transformative and could potentially reverse the mass incarceration of youth who have the potential to be significant contributors to societyopening-checking-acc-at-bank radio-broadcast-liz-and-kenneth-3 using-the-arts-to-restore-dignity-and-rights-1 sheriff-woody-2

Celebrating Lisa Kratz Thomas and Empowering our Youth for Success

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From the Crack House to the State House VCU Social Entrepreneurs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reality Education Television (RETV)  is networking with Youth Outreach Services to present Lisa Kratz Thomas’s story , her  struggles, victories, and transformation.  Lisa is a motivational speaker and an author.  “Lisa has given thousands of people the courage to transform their lives by sharing her own personal experience of recovery from drug addiction, alcohol abuse, prostitution and incarceration. Today, she is a successful entrepreneur, wife, mother and advocate for those who deserve a new beginning.” http://www.lisakratzthomas.com/

Lisa will be interviewed by college students across the state  and outer state about her life’s story. The students major are in law, criminology, sociology, psychology and some have had the opportunity to attend  Youth Outreach Services’ job readiness mentor program’s classes.  They are interns for Youth Corporation, Inc./ Youth Outreach Services and is teaching the job readiness mentor program to youth and young adults who are  challenged by the Social Justice System.

Come and be in the audience as we video tape Lisa’s story. You will have the opportunity to ask questions.  Donations are acceptable. Percentage of Proceeds will go toward opening a Mental Health Services and Drug Abuse Center in Woodbridge, Virginia  to help  education our students for success.  Your presence will make a difference.

We are seeking companies and business sponsorship. For your sponsorship, you will receive a 30 second commercial.   RETV is air on YouTube, Cox , Verizon, and Comcast television. Your commercial will air in the DMV area reaching over 2 million viewers.  The event will take place at Church on the Move (http://onthemove.org/) 13061  Touchstone Circle, Woodbridge, Virginia 22192, on Saturday, June 25, 2016,

Time: 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm. There will be food, fellowship, music, and praise dancing. Please call Elizabeth Charity at 571-314-7503 with questions or concerns.

Using Art and Music as a Component in Healing

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George Mason University allowed Youth Outreach Services to use the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (Department of Criminology, Law and Society) as a lab to assist in the research  study of the job readiness mentor program. This program  helps mentor  those who are challenged with social injustice and exiting the criminal  system.   It also provides  social, interpersonal and employment skills.  Youth Outreach Services partnered with political leader Senator  Jeremy McPike, various  businesses and the legal system to address the effectiveness of rehabilitating and providing employment to juvenile offenders  to reduce and eventually eliminate  recidivism .

Michael C. May was one of our special quest speaker on  establishing healthy relationships  when dealing with authority (www.albo-oblon.com/attorneys/michael-c-may).

Another special speaker was  Ms. Anne Sullivan, President of a woman-owned government relations business which specializes in the small business and entrepreneurial sector with offices in Washington, DC. and Virginia (http://www.madisonservicesgroup.com).
Our last session was on using  art and music as therapeutic healing.  Our special speaker was Ms. Kathleen  Miller, a biology professor at Strayer University , but her true passion  is art and music that brings forth transformation in people’s lives. She had he students undivided attention. Kahleen Miller Art Collections Kathleen Miller. Art Show
This class was the last of a five-week training session for college students to enter the juvenile detention centers to teach the full five-week program.
Students who played a major role in accomplishing this five-week program were as follows:  Marco Padilla Caceres who is a senior pursuing a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, was one of the students who attended the class. He said, “This class is a leadership class,” and he sees himself as a leader who can use his degree to help redesign the  way that juveniles think about themselves.  Samantha Singh, who is a law student and wants to help conduct surveys, gather data, research, and keep count of how many juveniles and young adults who participated  in the job readiness mentor program return to recidivism and how many will further their education, own business, and /or become employed.  Shonari James, is a  freshman at George Mason University who is majoring in public relations communications and minoring in business.  She is our video technician who takes education out of the class room and into the community through Reality Education Television (RETV).   Other students, whose pictures are not shown, are Phebe Ciemny who majors in Create writing,  Deshane Jones who majors in filming, and  Oladipo Victor Bashorun who is also a civic engineer student.  Stay tuned until next time as we bring forth transformation, healing and social changes.
Marco. 1Sam. 2Shonari James . Art Show

Spreading the Word at University of Richmond

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On March 25, 2016, Youth Corporation, Inc.,/ Youth Outreach Services attended the LaunchRVA career fair at the University of Richmond. We had the opportunity to partner with RVA Connection and introduce LIVE (Lead, Invent, Venture, Express) Change.

College students will use their God given talents to bring about change through providing rehabilitation, revolutionizing Education, and stopping the increase of incarcerations. Through the LIVE Change Program, they are helping to build a legacy that will stop the social injustice in the criminal system through Rehabilitation and Economic Development.

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Students LIVE Change and Loving It

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LIVE Change 1There was a buzz in the air as the students met on Saturday, February 13, 2016 in the new addition of Fenwick Library at the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University (GMU) and took ownership of The Student LIVE (Lead, Invent, Venture, Express) Change Program.  It is moving forward in an awesome way. The students have the opportunity to meet with The Office of Senator Jeremy McPike, 29th District, Senate of Virginia, General Assembly Building, Office 317 during the General Assembly session on March 3, 2016 to share their model of “Stop the Education Pipeline to Jail Program,” offering a solution to reduce recidivism in Virginia. Nina Motazedi shared the students’ model in GMU’s Fourth Estate Newspaper article, “New center provides place for Mason students to mentor at-risk youth.”

Daniel Lavelle, is the project leader and doing a fantastic job as he helps design the model. He is obtaining his degree in Psychology at GMU. He is also the single parent of one son, Gabriel Lavelle. Joining him are Samantha Singh, pursuing her Bachelor’s of Integrative Studies with a concentration in Law and Virginia Rose Lowe who is obtaining a degree in Education and doing community services hours for Youth Outreach Services. Her community services hours will help her learn how to run a non-profit organization and how to raise funds for it. Whereas, Kendra Mungra, a junior at GMU and majoring in Business Marketing will learn more about the fundraising side with Youth Corporation, Inc., the for-profit stock holding company and is responsible for helping to raise funds for the project by contacting businesses to become involved with Reality Education Television (RETV). They will become business mentors and help the students create commercials by giving workshops in their field of expertise. The businesses will also appear on the Hall of Fame in the television studio in the newly built facility. Kendra found out about the project by reading the above article in GMU’s Fourth Estate Newspaper.

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The Student LIVE (Lead, Invent, Venture, Express) Change Program  also has the opportunity to go to The Gold Room, 2168 Rayburn House Office Building on March 23 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm to tape the event which will air on Reality Education TV (RETV)  and other local television stations. Click Here for more info on the Mid-Tier Advocacy Inc., Briefing on Capitol Hill. Please email me if you have any questions.

 

When you decide to become a mentor to those who face social injustices and are challenged with the law you help stop the education pipeline to jail and reduce recidivism. Here are some of the responsibilities to help them find hope and to have a better life:

  1. Attend weekly training classes with a student majoring in Psychology (The Mentor Coordinator) and will do an under-study under  Dr. Reston Bell, the Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Dr. Faye Taxman, Professor and Director of George Mason University Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence, Department of Criminology, Law and Society  for the weekly training classes.

  2. 3 hours a week (3 hours at one time or 1 hour 3 times a week ) for 5 weeks

  3. Monthly  mentor-coordinator meeting: The Mentor Coordinator has the lead role in managing training sessions, logistics, developing curriculum and training materials, facilitating the session, and processing the training evaluation forms. Session should be conducted by program staff along with outside experts, parents/caretakers, and business mentors currently in the program.

  4. Quarterly required In –service Training Sessions. Once matched, each mentor and mentee must attend at least two in-services training sessions during the course of the year.

  5. Mentor, Mentee and caregiver/parent guardian in-service sessions will be offered quarterly.

  6. Upon completion of training with the Monthly Mentor-Coordinator Meeting, the college students will be assigned to alternative schools, detention centers, youth shelters and other designated organizations in their area.

We are seeking mentors; adults, business owners, and college students.  We need college students who major in music, business, communication, filming and editing.  And we are seeking investors who wants to purchase shares of stock in our company, Youth Corporation, Inc., to help build  the facility  and  help the college students and their mentees to  experience Student LIVE  (Lead, Invent, Venture, Express)  Change.

Please email  elizabeth.charity@yciyos.org for more information.

 

 

 

 

Give to Lead, Invent, and Venture Express Change- Live Change

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Business Social innovation is what our college students are doing to raise money to purchase property, design a building and build a non-traditional career center to create jobs and to help stop the education pipeline to jail in Virginia . Please review the video and help lead, invent, and venture to express change and live. Maybe you don’t have the time to mentor now, you don’t have the expertise in counseling, but you can give………

To help students in colleges across the state (  George Mason University, College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, and  Howard University)  to become counselors and mentors . You can give on this website  or   you can give at   http://www.wesharecrowdfunding.com/echarity.

Our Teens are crying for Help  and they need the help, please read the article

http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_9003d120-f3e8-5f76-8dec-dc6a0a6d75aa.html

Review the video and find out how universities and businesses are coming together to help make it happen .  Please hit the donation button below .  No amount is too small.  Thanks for helping us to LIVE.

 

Live Change

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GMU Students Job readiness ProgramAlexander Powell, majoring in psychology,  is one of George Mason University students who attended Youth Outreach Services , ” Stop the Education Pipeline to Jail.”   He wants to mentor and implement the job readiness mentor/ personal development program to Youth Outreach Services clients.  Also in attendance were Samantha Singh, Phebe Ciemny , both from George Mason University and Kwasi Brobbey from Northern Virginia Community College. From the workshops, they created a  slogan describing  of how to stop the education pipeline to jail. It was Live Change, which means; lead, invent, venture , express change. They  are researching the statistics of recidivism  and helping to design the job readiness mentor program.  George Mason University Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence, as an expert in correctional program, will work closely with the program to integrate evidence-based practices and treatments.  George Mason University Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence provided $100,000.00 in kind support for guidance in evidence-based programming, quality assurance for program components and evaluation support. This is based on the contributions of Dr. Faye S. Taxman and her team of researchers. Samantha Singh  who major is in disciplinary studies , with a concentration in Law  is one of the students who will research the evidence-based practices and treatments. Phebe Ciemny, is the social media who will help report the research results to the local court system.  Kwasi Brobbery is majoring in business, who is helping to recruit businesses to come  and provide workshops to be air on Reality Education Television (RETV) for positive publicity   and be a part of the small business incubators in the non-traditional career center.   The students will  work with professionals to help design and build the non-traditional career center . The students have an opportunity to do a presentation on this project  at the State Department of Juvenile Justice on January 11, 2016 at 9:30 am, Main Street Centre, 600 East Main Street -12th Floor Conference Room North, Richmond, VA 23219.

GMU Students . Poster 1

Creating the Poster  for  Youth Outreach Services Program – Reducing Recidivism by Live Change.

Celebrate with Youth Outreach Services 25- Years of Dedication and Commitment

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Part of the Brand of Prince William CountyYouth Outreach Services has been in existence since  1989 and became incorporated in 1992. It was started with Elizabeth Charity who was an unemployed mother with two teenage sons. She didn’t wanted her sons to become a part of the Education Pipeline to Jail. Over the years she has raised over $400,000.00 to help at-risk teenagers to find jobs through the 12 week job readiness mentor program. She has had the support of Governors, Senators, Congressmen, Delegates, Churches, Universities, Corporations,  Businesses, Concern Parents, and College Students.  Now, She is asking the community to make a connections  to open up an Office in Woodbridge, Virginia which can create 150 jobs in the next year. Your donations will help provide a better quality of life  for the college students and their mentors,  and build a facility with incubator businesses which will bring economic growth to Prince William County,  Northern Virginia and  Richmond, Virginia.  Join others who has already given to change lives and bring about positive social changes.

supporters of YOS Job Readiness Program

Fall Festival 92Travis Harris (1)Jazmyn and Samantha. Healing our CommunityCommunity Involvement

 

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Break the Education Pipeline to Jail/Silent Auction- Social Jazz

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At the Verizon Auditorium,  George Mason University , Prince William CampusRandall Mailand- Quartet Group

Students from Virginia Commonwealth University – Modern Swing Quartet

Join College Students from around the state: speaking out on the Education Pipeline to Jail- Help

provide funding  to educate instead of incarcerate:  http://www.wesharecrowdfunding.com/echarity.

 

An Editorial from the CEO and Founder of Youth Outreach Services

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"Elizabeth Charity. Photo by Creative Services/George Mason University"

“Elizabeth Charity. Photo by Creative Services/George Mason University”

“Richmond bottomed out in 1994: one city councilman went off to rehab for his heroin problem and another was in hot water for not paying utilities and renting out condemned property, enrollment at VCU dropped, the city recorded the nation’s 19th largest population decline since 1980, Richmond made the wrong end of Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live list, and by the end of the year had tallied a record 161 homicides. With recent years showing the lowest body counts since 1961, the city’s population back up over 200,000, and VCU having greatly expanded, it is difficult to imagine that mid-1990s Richmond was ever real.”  (chpn.net/news/2010/08/15/Richmond-1994_147837″Elizabeth Charity, CEO and Founder of Youth Outreach Services

             In 1994, Richmond rated  third in the Nations for homicide and being a single mother with two black sons, I didn’t want my sons to be  one of the statistic, therefore, I  developed and implemented  a nonprofit 501c3 organization, Youth Outreach Services.    In 1994, the organization was approved for a grant to start a Job Training Program by the former Governor George Allen and he used it as the Virginia Initial Welfare to work program in 1995.

Now, twenty (20) years later, I am graduating from George Mason University with a BIS (Bachelor of Individualized Study) degree with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship that is transforming the juvenile offenders into social entrepreneurs. To research the effectiveness of programs geared towards rehabilitation and providing employment to juvenile offenders necessary to reduce recidivism in which the students will draw on the disciplines of psychology, criminology, business, communication, sociology, and the contributions of various academic disciplines.

The results of getting a degree in Social Entrepreneurship – Reducing recidivism are as following:

  • Ex-juvenile Offenders receives mentoring and financial support to help reduce recidivism from the businesses that participate in the mentoring program and receive positive publicity through Reality Education Television.  RETV is taking the education out of the classroom and bringing it into the community. Reality Education Television is a partnership with George Mason’s Social Entrepreneurship Society (SES). This student-led organization, works in the community, to help reduce juvenile delinquency by providing juvenile justice.
  •  RETV is created by Youth Corporation Inc. (Business factor) it is also owned and operated by the Social Entrepreneur and the Business Community.  Your business can turn Social Capital into Social Change.
  • Employment & Rehabilitation can reduce recidivism and save the communities precious resources
  • Develop and implement a non-traditional Career Center for Business &Job Development.
  • Submit Research Analysis results to Policy makers in Congress and General Assembly to provide more funding for education instead of incarceration.

SES studentsCongressman Wittman 2Congressman Wittman