Working Towards Goals

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Our mentees are getting closer each day to completing their brands. Today, they worked on their website design through Squarespace. They planned how it will be laid out, as well as incorporating colors that represent their brand. The Mentees have made so much great progress and we are very proud! Some have even completed orders for samples of their products. We also helped guide them in how to print stickers and cut them out. Brand creation is a long process with a lot of hard work but they have been pushing through! The next steps would be taking photos of their products and headshots to use on their websites and throughout social media, then completing their websites!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Mental Health Matters

On Monday night, TFD hosted a mental health meeting for Proviso District students. The purpose of this meeting was to hear out the students and to understand what they are going through due to recent events within the schools. They shared a little bit about what they are going through as a school and how the staff is handling these situations. We wanted to hear about the dynamic between students and administration and how we can be there to support them in any change they would like to see. It was an open discussion to share feelings and thoughts in a safe space and show that their are people here to support and help in whatever areas they made need.

This meeting was also to get some ideas of how TFD can implement a more permanent mental health aspect to its curriculum and what resources they would like to have available to them that TFD can provide. It was overall a great discussion with lots of information and we can’t wait to see where we can take this advice and how to help both now and in the future!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Learning About Youtube

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

For a portion of last Saturday’s mentorship, our mentees were visited by Kevyn, or KevoNobody, to learn about YouTube. Kevyn was in our summer mentorship and is the second past mentee to lead a workshop here at TFD. He has a YouTube channel where he creates content about self-discovery in an entertaining way.

Kevyn came out to teach our mentees about the creative process behind making YouTube content, as well as a bit of what editing looks like for something like this. The creative process he referred to is: An idea that calls, initiation (creating a plan and a script), the structure (the intro, good pacing, and flair!), and the execution. Once the video is completed, the next steps are creating an eye catching thumbnail and a title that works well with what the topic of the video is. It is also very important to add tags to your video with things that are relevant to the topic and including your channel name. When it comes to a cover photo for your YouTube page, you want to make sure the colors are on brand and represents you and your content well.

Kevyn then showed our mentees a video of his own as an example and ended with telling us anyone can do it! In the end, everyone learned so much and we are grateful to have the chance to support our past mentees and for them to come back and teach!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Progress, Progress, Progress

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

This past Saturday, our mentees continued their work on their projects. They have been working hard the last few weeks to create their own brands, as well as new merch for TFD! This week they began creating their websites, ordering the clothing for the shops, turning their artwork digital and much more! Our mentees have made so much progress and are coming closer and closer to the end everyday. They will be sharing with everyone once they are done! You can continue to check in on our blog to keep up with their progress!

Photo Credit: Mariah & Mya Rose

November Food Distribution

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Saturday morning Impact Church hosted their monthly Food Distribution held at God’s Heritage Full Gospel Church in Maywood. The two churches come together every third Saturday of the month to provide for families in the community and to pray over those who choose to be prayed over. For each of these distributions, it is a drive-up event to keep everyone safe and distanced due to the pandemic. This month they had a great turn out, with cars lined up around the block. There was plenty of food to be given, like cereal, cookies, snacks, different meats, and even a turkey for Thanksgiving! Within 30 minutes we had given out most of the food and everyone was so happy to help those in need and make a positive impact in their community. We are so grateful for these two churches and to partner with them to document a great event such as this one. TFD will be joining them for next month’s Food Distribution as well as the upcoming Toy Drive!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose