Creating A Brand

Photo Credit: Mariah

On Saturday our mentees began with an ice breaker called “Guess that drawing”. It was hilarious to see all the shapes each person drew and to hear everyone’s guesses. We transitioned to the tables where our Mentorship Coordinator, Sandra, asked the mentees to visit her website and locate five words that helped them discover information about this brand. Each Mentee shared the words they found and what those words led them to believe was the the goal of Papelitos Lindos.

Our mentees then partnered up with one another to dream about how their brand will look and feel. We started with two groups. Group one developed the creative side of things when it comes to creating a brand such as: brand colors, fonts and styles. Group two started a conversation about the purpose of a mission statement and how to create one.

In the second set of groups, each mentee with a business idea was partnered up with another mentee who wanted to support their idea. The duo then designed a vision board for their brand. This board included: fonts, colors, brand names, and logos. Our mentees used iPads and Apple Pencils to sketch out their logos through Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, or hand drawing. We can’t wait to see all that our mentees design for their brands!

Photo Credit: Mariah

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

Food Distribution | March 2022

Photo Credit: Saffron

Every 3rd Saturday of the month, God’s Heritage Full Gospel, Impact Church, Next Generation, & TFD gather for food distribution for people within the community. We are a coalition of neighboring organizations working together to provide for our community. These distributions are so important for both families and individuals since there are no local grocery stores in the area.

This month makes 2 years since TFD began this partnership! We are thankful that we are able to serve our community and those in need. We hope to see continued growth and partnership.

Photo Credit: Saffron

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