Restorative Economy

Photo Credit: Mariah

It was so exciting to welcome Xochitl and Gabriel of Co-op Ed Center to TFD this past Wednesday to lead a restorative economy workshop! Our mentees kicked it off with an ice breaker where they were given a question or statement and if they agreed to that statement, they moved to stand in the middle of the circle. It was fun to learn so many new things about our mentees! We love how involved our mentees were and how many new conversations were started around restorative economy.

Our mentees discussed how a cooperative works and made a list of what a cooperative means to them. One of the groups shared, “A group of people working together to accomplish or achieve a goal”. Afterwards, they came together to combine their ideas.

Photo Credit: Mariah

Amanda | One Year Later

Amanda began her journey at TFD in March of 2021. In the beginning, calligraphy began as a fun hobby, then when doing calligraphy work for some of her fellow mentees, the dream became more of a reality. Now a year later, she has a thriving calligraphy business! Amanda has now officially led two workshops at TFD for new mentees, which everyone really enjoyed! The TFD team is so proud of Amanda and how far she has come. We are happy to continue to support her dreams!

“The starving artist narrative is false, you can be successful while pursuing creative passions.”

- Amanda Spring 21’ Mentee

Photo Credit: Jocelyn, Terrance, Maya

Budgeting 101

Photo Credit: Mariah

After an amazing spring break, our mentees returned this week. We started the first day of week 7 mentorship with an ice breaker asking, “What are two things that make you unique?”. Afterward, we discussed ideas for community projects. During our Summer 2021 mentorship, we had two groups create a community project. This first group project was Conversation Food Desert, where a group of mentees started up a conversation about Maywood being a food desert. The second group project was Maywoodian Families, this group found families in our community and photographed them, along with a series of questions and answers. These projects were shown to our current spring mentees to get inspiration for their community projects.

After our dialogue on community projects, we welcomed Stephanie, a TFD board member, to lead a workshop on how to budget. It was so great to see our mentees engage in a dialogue about financial wellness; one of our three pillars at TFD. Stephanie shared tips & advice on how to understand the process of budgeting, practical budgeting tools, and encouraged budgeting.

As a group, our 8 mentees created a mock college student budget of $2,000 along with a list of expenses. This individual was responsible for: car insurance, gas, textbooks, food, wants, household items, savings, credit card debt, cell phone, rent, and investments. It was amazing to see how invested our mentees were in this workshop. We cannot wait for the next one!

Photo Credit: Mariah

A Tour Of Maywood

Maywood is rich in history and it is so amazing to have our firehouse right in the middle of it! On Saturday our Co-Founder/Executive Director, Jasmine, led a dialogue on the brand of Maywood.

As a group, our mentees discussed: “What is the narrative of Maywood and how it makes us feel?” She led them through a dialogue in acknowledging that communities don’t just experience disinvestment without a reason, and she encouraged them to look at the root, and then to identify how we can come up with community-led asset based solutions. Jasmine believes to do this well, we need to look back at our history and consider the context of who and what Maywood is today.

We all hopped into a van, where Jasmine took the mentees on a tour of Maywood. This tour allowed for them to “see” Maywood’s challenges, like the lack of economic development, not having a grocery store and more. However, this tour allowed for our mentees to sit in the tension of our challenges while also seeing all the good that has happened in past decades, as well as, what is currently happening on a grassroots level. We often hear from outside communities: “Where are the leaders?” So it’s very important to Jasmine and TFD, that we dismantle this lie by sharing all of the amazing residents, organizations, faith communities, and more who are working together towards a better Maywood.

Some key highlights our mentees were able to learn about was The Freedom House, a home that was a part of the underground railroad. They visited Fred Hampton’s childhood home and they learned all about the contributions he made in Maywood as a teen. They learned about Bessie Coleman, and her flying over Maywood, during a time when in America’s history she wasn’t allowed to get her pilot license because of her skin color. We learned despite Jim Crow laws and segregation, we had a thriving Black-own business community which contributed greatly toward Maywood as a whole. And even after white flight, our Black neighbors have continued to fight and advocate for equity and equality in Maywood, which continues to remain a majority Black community since the 1970’s.

So we celebrate, honor and acknowledge all of it’s beauty here in Maywood.

Photo credit: Mariah

En Pilsen Community Building

Carlo from En Pilsen led a workshop with our Mentees on how to become closer to your community. He explained to our mentees how important community is and shared ways to become closer to your neighbors. Using local hashtags on Instagram and other social media platforms can connect you to other people within your neighborhood. In Pilsen, Carlo began a clean up and restoration at a community garden to allow neighbors to connect and become closer to their community, which similar to what we have in Maywood. You can find out more about the work that Carlo is doing within in Pilsen on Instagram.

Photo Credit: Mariah