FEATURED PROGRAM
Through OUr LENS: A KIDS EMPOWERMENT PHOTOGRAPHY PROGRAM
Through a partnership with ChangeX and Playful Learning Landscapes Action Network, Nickelodeon has selected the Through Our Lens: Kids Empowerment Photography Program as an Urban Thinkscape project.
THROUGH OUR LENS
Through its Youth in Leadership Program, the Women Empowered To Prosper Resource Center is proud to join ERand Media LLC in piloting the Through Our Lens: Kids Empowerment Photography Program for the Nickelodeon Community Fund Atlanta opportunity. The purpose of WEP's Youth Leadership Program is to provide empowerment in education, arts, and social and civic engagement for youth in elementary, thus, giving youth an opportunity for leadership through outreach and community engagement. The project allows youth to learn photography and express their surroundings through visual art. This workshop has been held for fathers who want to share a bonding moment with their sons through photography and a standalone creative arts activity for youth.
ERand Media LLC Youth Programs: Through what ERand Media has called their TRIFECTA: To Be Young, Gifted and Black Program, inner-city youth are exposed to the opportunity of Beginners Digital Photography. TRIFECTA has the intentional goal(s) of empowering, encouraging, and inspiring youth who are at a disadvantage due to their social environment and economic status. ERand Media projects use an evidenced-based model to guide designing opportunities to cultivate environments that include support systems, such as peer or social networks, school, family, and community.
The current popularity and accessibility of photography make it a powerful means to engage youth of all ages in creative programming while teachin1g them skills they will use for the rest of their lives. For some youths, photography opens the door to creative self-expression that no other art form allows. The Through Our Lens program is designed to help youth ages 6 to 18 develop their creativity and cultural awareness through an appreciation of photography. Through Our Lens program will take the youth and adults beyond taking snapshots with their phones and develop the necessary skills to take photographs that can impact the viewer. Some youth might discover that a career pathway will be achieved, an option that never before would have been envisioned, thus sparking they're embarking on entry-level career photography.
To learn more about the program, contact us at: info@we2p.org
How to help:
To support youth in beginners digital photography, please click below to make a donation campaign.
Justice Impacted Program for Women
The Justice Impacted Women Program has been designed with the overall experience Women Empowered To Prosper Resource Center has gained over the past twenty years using gender-responsive evidence-based, and best practices. Working with correctional facilities, probation and parole, and other community partners and stakeholders, we provided a network of vital resources to interrupt the poverty cycle for women, children, and families.
Women and girls in the justice system have different needs than men, partly due to the higher rate at which they are victims of abuse, their responsibility for children, the impact of poverty, and their pathways contributing to their involvement with the justice system.
As a community provider in metro Atlanta, through linkages, networks and referrals, WE2P can facilitate and help women during the transition and reentry phase to navigate complex service delivery systems and provide needed assistance.
Our mission is to promote women's empowerment through education, employment, health care, and evidence-based reentry efforts. We aim to interrupt women's poverty cycle through access to resources, mentoring, mental health, and spiritual and wellness activities to develop self-sufficiency, economic mobility, and stability.
School Outreach and Engagement
Elementary School Initiative (ESI)
Women Empowered to Prosper has partnered with the National Executive Council (NEC) at Columbia University in bringing its services for children to Atlanta, Georgia. The NEC comprises business, nonprofit, and government executives in partnership with community leaders, including system-impacted people, to foster community-centered solutions for underserved neighborhoods. NEC partners include Georgia State University, Emory University, Life University, Morehouse College, and the University of Georgia, providing books, book bags, and other school supplies during the year.
Our community engagement efforts with NEC include New York, Indianapolis, and Washington D.C. schools. We are turning schools with our community engagement focus to the southeast - operating in Georgia and South Carolina. As part of our strategic partnership plan in these two southeast states, Women Empowered to Prosper and NEC will collaborate to expand the Elementary School Initiative (ESI). This initiative’s overarching goal is to provide educational support to public elementary schools serving some of our most underinvested and low-income neighborhoods. The partnership emphasized the belief that providing access to quality education at all ages is central to establishing thriving communities. We aim to provide educators with complimentary access to resources that help make learning more fun, innovative, and accessible. Leading partners in the ESI are community-based organizations, Healthy Routines and Community Capacity Development, and Nickelodeon
Youth Literacy and ESI
Another Reason We Do It
Literacy is essential to developing a strong sense of well-being and citizenship. Reading proficiency entails two things: 1) Decoding skills that enable children to read a text, and 2) comprehension skills that enable children to understand, engage and get involved with a piece of text. Children who develop strong reading skills perform better in school and have a healthier self-image. Research has shown they become lifelong learners and sought-after employees.
We understand that when children focus on literacy activities they enjoy, reading is seen as desirable, achievable, and enjoyable – thereby changing the trajectory of a child's life forever. Reading also stimulates a child's imagination and expands their understanding of the world. This is why bringing the Elementary School Initiative (ESI) to the community brings back-to-school resources and supplies to low-income families, where children in these neighborhoods need books the most. There are many ways to include reading in all stages of childhood, and ESI allows accessibility for all the children in the selected neighborhoods to have access to books to start the school year and keep for future readings again and again.
Photo Gallery
