I have started three nonprofits and one program, including…
- HOME WORKS! The Teacher Home Visit Program in 2007. It is a program that increases academic achievement, attendance, classroom behavior, and parental involvement by training teachers to go to their students’ homes to forge a relationship with the family to get them involved in their childrens’ education. – HOME WORKS! website
- Cultural Leadership in 2004. It is an educational leadership program that teaches high-school students to be change agents, social justice activists, and what we call “troublemakers of the best kind.” – Cultural Leadership website
- Books & Badges. From 2001 to 2019, police recruits attending the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Academy spent time every other week reading and writing with struggling students in several elementary schools in the St. Louis Public Schools. – Learn more about the program.
- Operation Understanding DC in 1994. It is a year-long teen leadership program for Black and Jewish high-school students in the Washington DC metropolitan area (DMV) for young people to learn about their own and each other’s race, religion, culture, and history and civil rights, social justice, and democracy. – Operation Understanding DC website.
Sophisticated Giving
There was something about Sophisticated Giving that made me just want to be in there, so I used my own money – I am adamantly against non-profits using donor money for advertising – and it paid off!