Worthdays

One of the youth who participated in our cooking workshops last year does a phenomenal job of making connections with people he meets and maximizes his exposure to available resources. A couple weeks ago he sent us a message saying he’s always wanted to go to a NASCAR race and asked if we had any connections to get tickets. Combatting loneliness; providing opportunities for joy and normalcy; and giving any opportunity for collective connection for those impacted by the foster care system are all goals of ours so we said we’d look into it. We posted on Instagram and several of our amazing donors jumped in to help. First one donor whose husband works for Sunoco LP donated two tickets so that this youth could attend. Mission accomplished, right? Then came another donor who connected us with someone in her network that ultimately led to 80 more tickets being donated for youth impacted by the system. There was such an overwhelming response to this opportunity for joy we had to close our interest form and purchase more tickets to fulfill the requests received. Ultimately 90 people benefited from this incredibly generous opportunity for joy this weekend at Richmond Raceway. Foster and kinship families; young people who have aged out of foster care invited friends, significant others: a whole boys group home went together; siblings and cousins joined in. We are so, so grateful for our incredible community that shares their networks with us to make opportunities like this possible!

TODAY is the last day to register for this event! The youth are EXCITED representing almost 50% of registrants. Only about 25% are interested volunteer, business or community partners. We would LOVE to boost this number and hope you will consider joining us. We are so excited about this event to kickoff our CEO {Connections, Entrepreneurship, Opportunities} program in partnership with Project LIFE at UMFS. CEO is a program designed specifically for young people who have experienced the local foster care system, who are 14-23 and who are committed to learning more about entrepreneurship! We are excited to begin exploring participant’s entrepreneurial potential through hands-on learning experiences, mentorship, and interactive workshops. To make this program a reality, we are excited to partner with enthusiastic community members who are passionate about making a difference. Volunteers will be incorporated in a number of ways for this program and might range from field trip destination, assistance with interactive workshops, job shadowing, skill expert presenters, product/service donation, mentoring and other program support. We are THRILLED to be joined by Worthdays-supporter, Danessa Knaupp who is an incredible CEO, best-selling author, executive coach and speaker who has experience as a foster parent! Fair warning that those attending may get chills hearing from Danessa about how youth who have journeyed the foster care system are uniquely designed to be entrepreneurs! If you are interested in getting involved with this program and learning more, we hope you will join us! If you know someone in our community who needs to be there or a local business who might be interested, please spread the word! More information, including event registration, can be found 👇🏽 or by emailing [email protected]

We are thrilled to introduce a new program that we have been working on behind the scenes alongside our amazing friends at Project LIFE! This program is the brain child of several staff at Project Life and UMFS that we are thrilled to help bring to life. CEO, which stands for Connections, Entrepreneurship and Opportunities, is a transformative initiative designed to empower those impacted by our local foster care system with the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to succeed in the world of entrepreneurship. This program offers a unique opportunity for youth ages 14-23 to explore their entrepreneurial potential through hands-on learning experiences, mentorship and interactive workshops! The goal of this initiative is to expose youth to information, relationships, connections, networks and opportunities that will lead to college, career and/or life success. There will be a wide range of youth involved in this program: those who already have a business idea and those who don’t even yet believe they are capable of being an entrepreneur; those who will need very basic guidance and those who will benefit from more advanced expertise; and those who simply may be dreaming of an informal ‘side hustle’ to those who are dreaming of starting their own LLC. We are so excited to share that Worthdays has received an incredibly generous donation of $25,000 from Crestwood Presbyterian Church’s Be Rich 2024 campaign that will support program costs and provide ‘seed money’ to youth who have demonstrated a commitment to their entrepreneurship journey! To bring this vision to reality, we are excited to partner with enthusiastic community members who are passionate about making a difference! By sharing your time and expertise, you will not only help guide these youth on their entrepreneurial journey but also contribute to the creation of a supportive and inspiring community. This initiative aims to build a dynamic and diverse group of volunteers are can truly connect with and inspire the youth we serve. This is where YOU come in - we encourage you to share this post with those who might be interested in helping (there are a variety of ways to get involved) and tag those in your life who may be interested in getting involved. In the comments, you will find more information about how to get plugged into make a difference in the life of a young person impacted by the system!