Intro To Marketing

Photo Credit: Mariah

Marketing is a big part of how brands and businesses take off. For the first day of week 6, Lu’Cretia, our Creative Project Manager and mentor to lead this workshop. Lu’Cretia went over all the basics of marketing. She engaged in a conversation with our mentees about what marketing is & what goes into it. She also taught them how to create ads for various businesses, all while staying on track with branding styles, colors, and fonts. It was fascinating to see our mentees work together as a team to create their ads for TFD.

Photo Credit: Mariah

Building A Brand

Everyone knows of someone who owns their own brand but have you ever thought about how they formed it? We just started our fifth week of mentorship that all about branding. Our board President Deon Bonaparte of Agency Evolve, led his 4th workshop with TFD on “How To Build A Brand".” Deon went over the steps on how to build your brand with three steps: build the foundation, brand strategy, and a business plan. The most important information that our mentees learned was to clearly articulate what they want their brand to be, look like, and feel. Deon left the mentees with a quote from Walt Disney. “Walt Disney was asked, “How do you feel on your deathbed knowing that you will not be able to see Disney world come to life?” Walt Disney replied “I already have”. You need to understand your brand before you start it.” We are so appreciative of our Board president and cannot wait to welcome him back during our Summer mentorship!

Photo Credit: Mariah

Belief & Leadership

Photo Credit: @amieisfan

On Day 2 of mentorship, we had the opportunity to partner once again with @jaleelanthonytv for a Belief & Leadership workshop. It was so amazing to see how invested and engaged our mentees were. We love to see notebooks being filled up with knowledge learned from creatives we bring into the firehouse. Today, Jaleel discussed what leadership really means. His prompt LEADER helped the mentees reach deeper into their minds. LEADER represents, L- Love, E- Experience, A- Appreciate, D- Discipline, E- Environment, and R- Relationships. Discipline is something Jaleel heavily emphasized. Our mentees took home lots of new information and inspiration. We can’t wait for them to learn more throughout these next 12 weeks.

Photo Credit: @amieisfan

First Mentorship Of 2022!

Photo Credit: Mariah Frank

3...2...1...It's mentorship day! Today we had our first day of spring mentorship! How exciting?! This day was all things paperwork, technology, and guidelines. During the first half of mentorship, we introduced ourselves and shared some fun facts about each other, then we went over guidelines and expectations for our mentees. We filled out some paperwork, and assigned cameras and laptops! This week’s goal was to establish trust and partnership with our mentees. At the end of the day, our mentees shared an impactful story so we can learn a little bit more about them! We can't wait for our 10 mentees to learn all things photography. Stay tuned through our Instagram (@thefirehousedream) to see more behind the scenes and mentorship days live in action!

Photo Credit : Mariah Frank

Sony Film Project Is Live!

We are so excited to share our Sony Create Action Film is live!

In Oct. 2021, we were selected to be the grant recipients of The Create Action Grant Program in which we were given $50,000 in cash to continue and expand our work, this Sony-produced short film sharing our story and $50,000 in Sony Electronics products to support our action plan. Jake from Sony Alpha came to the firehouse last month to film TFD during our mentorship program.

Over the past year, TFD has put in so much work and has grown tremendously. It is truly amazing to see it all come together the way it has and to be selected for this grant. Now being in partnership with Sony, we have even more opportunity to provide our young adults with access to the latest tech and equipment.

We are so excited to see what the future brings for TFD and how we can grow and expand to reach even more creative young adults of color.

In case you are interested in learning more, the Create Action Grant Program is open through March 29, 2022 and will provide grants to 10 different organizations total, with one new grant awarded each month.

To learn more go to: alphauniverse.com/createaction.