Believing In Forever Youth Programming Flourishing In New University of Kentucky Collaboration
We are now 60 days into our new University of Kentucky partnership, and we are already making an impact in engaging our community participants and the facilities on campus. Believing In Forever Inc is just 1/3 (Black Soil & Operation Making A Change) of our "Campus Community Connection" collaboration at The Cornerstone UK. So far we have facilitated a 3 "Sons of Single Mothers Mentoring Days" & 5 "The Black Women Project" meetings. The cornerstone has been a great central location for our community programs. We utilize our office, the Esports gaming center, and the lobby area. The advanced technologies at The Cornerstone have helped us with our presentations during our mentoring meetings and the music projects. We look forward to expanding this partnership in the summer & fall with our "Dads On Campus" program!
Sons of Single Mothers:
A mentoring program reserved for central Kentucky boys, ages 5-17, that live in single mother households. Statistics tell us that children from fatherless homes are most susceptible to engaging in criminal activity, creating children out of wedlock, suffering from depression, and other challenges that negativity affect their social development. This program aims to combat those challenges with an onslaught of positive male role models from the community on a monthly basis. Some of the activities include mock job interviews, college visits, attending the movies, poetry in the park, museums, theme parks, church, going out to eat, essay contests and more. We try to balance out our activities so that our participants can not only get a sense of education, team building and fun, but also get exposed to things outside of their comfort zone. We hope that new exposure can inspire them to push beyond their current condition. This program hopes to fill the void for male youths growing up without a father figure. Any single mothers interesting in getting your son involved please email us at believinginforever@gmail.com
The Black Woman Project:
2020 was the year of the Black Women. Last year not only highlighted the devaluing of black women in our country, like Breonna Taylor, but it also showed the leadership of Black Women, like Stacey Abrahams. While our Kamala Harris became the first women and person of color to be elected as Vice President, we also so black women disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Black Women represent beauty, elegance and strength, yet somehow continue to be the most disrespected person in American. Believing In Forever Inc in collaboration w/ The Cornerstone at the University of Kentucky are bringing together 6 young black women and girls (3 college students from UK & 3 students from Crawford middle School) to use music as a way to amplify their voices.
These young queens will be learning about the history of hip hop culture, the progression of black women in American, & leadership skills that can help them be game changers in their community. We are going to meet in person 2 to 3 times a month at 409 S. Limestone, The Cornerstone building on UK's campus. The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to create 4-6 song hip hop EP documenting, expressing and celebrating the contributions of black women in our country. They will also brainstorm a t-shirt design celebrating black women. The proceeds of the project and merchandise will go to a local nonprofit that serves women of all races in our community. We hope this project will educate, illuminate, and highlight the value that women of color have in our society and provide context to why we fight so hard for equality and equity. We believe that once BLACK LIVES MATTER, all lives will matter!
