Let’s Talk Trash! Kids DO CHANGE the WORLD! Divine Bradley In 1999, 17-year-old Divine Bradley decided to start a community center for his underserviced
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Canarsie, Brooklyn neighborhood. After noticing that there were few positive opportunities for youth after school, Divine connected with the community’s youth and began plans for a center to provide an outlet for creative expression. In 2000, the nonprofit organization Team Revolution was created. By 2002, Team Revolution had raised $25,000, which Divine used to convert half of his parents’ home into a community center. Today, Team Revolution is focused on reaching out to children virtually, creating the next generation of community leaders and social entrepreneurs and an empowering educational environment for people in disadvantaged communities. SOURCE: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/photos/8-amazing-kids-who-have-changed-the-world/katie-stagliano#top-desktop
Divine has since created: n The Fellowship Academy (a specialized school designed for young people with a drive to make a difference in their communities) , n The Bank (a program that teaches teens with seminars on Economic and Financial literacy with the goal of educating and empowering youth to elevate the financial well-being of humanity) , n The Leadership Etiquette and Development program (L.E.A.D.), which creates effective youth leaders. Through the Fellowship Academy, Divine has created partnerships with larger corporations and partnering with Polo Ralph Lauren, amongst others. Through the Academy’s partnership with Polo, young people learn the creative and business aspects of the fashion industry, how to create products, as well as other key factors of business.
Today, Team Revolution still thrives as a youth-led after school program aimed primarily at 13-23 year-olds, and has impacted the lives of over 500 participants since its founding, with no signs of slowing. Divine , now 24 years old, plans to keep the project 100% youth-led. He told the Brick Awards: “Eventhough I am a Program Engineer and sometimes Program Director, I’m moving up to the Executive Director position so that the young people, who are graduates of these programs and are going to become leaders of these programs, can actually have their own space to do what they have to do…. I have a plan. Every five years I have a different level that you can move up [to] in Team Revolution. So, I’m actually being that model individual for each person that moves up in Team Revolution.”
Be Part of a Solution!
Like so many of his neighbors, he inwardly longed for a solution -- an alternative to the loitering that almost always led to trouble. Yet as a 17-years- old inner-city kid himself, he was an unlikely candidate in tackling this problem. But tackle he did.
The Ashland City Times
aaron@usstn.com c: (615)982-2998 w: (615)227-2275 f: (615)746-5211 ProjectManager AARON WOLFE
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