Honor Roll

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jul 22 2010

Providing invaluable life skills

Purple Reign Education Center Inc., founded by Sharon Cruse, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to address individuals’ behavior and work with them to develop different approaches to living and sustaining a better quality of life. Purple Reign works in partnership with schools, faith-based and community-based organizations, who connect with at-risk youth and young adults.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jul 15 2010

Using basketball to encourage education

Eric Woolridge is the founder of Rep Your City Basketball, a non-profit organization that he created in 2007 to help young men in communities of color get the opportunity to go to college and hopefully make a career out of playing basketball. Since then, he has been organizing and looking for sponsors and volunteers to help him move forward and get the organization off of the ground.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jul 8 2010

Engaging and enriching our youth

The Watts-Willowbrook Music Conservatory is designed to transform the lives and minds of young people in the Watts-Willowbrook area of Los Angeles through high-quality music education. The organization’s mission is to inspire and enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.

The program was founded on January 6, of this year, after program director Les Jones saw a need to expand the minds and abilities of the youngsters enrolled in the Watts-Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jul 1 2010

Helping young Black men achieve EXCELlence

The Edified eXamples Cultivating and Empowering Lives Mentor and Resource Center, Incorporated (E.X.C.E.L.), is a non-profit organization which serves as a community outreach program for young men, ages 13 to 21, in the Compton area.

The program gives young men the opportunity to grow, become educated, and achieve at higher rates and strives to help them after they leave the juvenile system and/or foster care. EXCEL helps these at-risk youngsters by providing them with positive role models.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jun 24 2010

Center goes beyond addiction to root causes

Seeking Peaceful Solutions Inc. (SPS) is a non-profit organization launched in response to social, economic, and health-related needs in the community and provides dispute/conflict resolution, mental health services, and other treatments focused on youth and families in crisis.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”