Sony Film | Day 1

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

We are so excited for this week! Tuesday was the first day of Jake from Sony Alpha filming TFD! The team, mentees and board are so happy and honored to have received this grant and opportunity like this for our nonprofit. We are being filmed to highlight our story as an organization and how far we have come within just this past year! It’s like a dream that we are able to partner with a brand like Sony and we now are able to transition to Sony cameras and equipment! This entire experience has been so exciting and a lot of fun. For mentorship, we had a mini-workshop held by Lu’Cretia and worked on editing photos from this past Saturday. We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose and Jasmine

Alt Chicago

Photo Credit: Jasmine

We did it again! We went on our second field trip with our 10 mentees! This past Saturday we took a trip to the city to learn how to build sustainable waste bins. Also, our mentees learned about reducing waste and having more sustainable options. Did you know that black and brown communities have fewer garbage bins throughout their town than white communities do? Alt Chicago is a black-owned, non-profit led by Jordan and Jon who specialize in building these waste bins out of wood from old pallets, this way everything is being reused and there is less waste. We cannot wait to partner with even more amazing non-profits and organizations like this one! Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @thefirehousedream to see more behind the scenes from our mentorship.

Photo Credit: Jasmine

Photoshoots & Fun

In today’s mentorship, our mentees held photoshoots for their products! They accomplished so much in a short period of time and are nearing the end. This is another big step in the process. The mentees took their own headshots and product photos for their websites. Some mentees even brought in models to showcase their hard work. All of the photos are turning out great and creative! There’s still a bit more to get done before the brands and websites are completed but it will be done before they know it! We are so proud of our mentees here at TFD and all they have accomplished in their time here!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Making Big Moves

Photo Credit: Mya Rose

Our mentees are nearly to the end of their brand creation! We have a few mentees creating clothing brands and some have received their products! They turned out great and everyone is so excited to photograph their products over the weekend! This is a major development for the mentees and TFD is so proud to help them reach their goals. Most websites are completed other than the photos that will be completed Saturday morning. Big moves and hard work has been put into these great ideas and are now becoming a reality. The mentees can’t wait to share what they have created!

Content Creating & Collaboration

Today in mentorship, TFD was visited by Mylene to discuss content creating, as well as collaboration with other brands. Mylene is an interior designer who also has a big presence on social media. She talked with our mentees about various aspects of creating content. For example, having pillars of what your brand stands for, how to entice your audience, storytelling, and how to use things like hashtags to help build your brand. When it comes to the pillars of a brand, you always want to stay true to those things and to bring them out in every aspect of what you do. Another key point Mylene discussed was building community instead of competition and ways to do that. She went over things like hashtags either created by you or others and connecting with other brands this way. Mylene also shared that when giving a pitch, you want to keep it short and sweet, getting to the point and making connections the best you can while still being captivating. Our mentees learned a lot and we are grateful to have Mylene teach us these things!

Photo Credit: Mya Rose