myLIFEspeaks

As a faith-based nonprofit, myLIFEspeaks' Vision is to develop a Christ-Centered Culture one LIFE at a time. Our mission is advancing community by enhancing LIFE. We want everyone in the areas where we work to have the freedom to experience all that life has to offer them, no matter what their ability/disability level might be. Everyone deserves the chance to grow up and flourish. We want our community to see the opportunities before them to be able to help their fellow man/woman as well as become all that they can be. We want to encourage parents to be the best parents they can be and to see no more parents feel shamed into giving up their children because of the curse of poverty.

Goals we are working toward:
-children no longer relinquished to orphanages or other families due to poverty
-children no longer abandoned
-children who were once in orphanages or in situations of abandonment to be reunified with their families
-children in need of families have the opportunity to be placed in loving and caring families
-support groups for parents and special needs families
-the best education in Haiti
-an integrated special education/general education model
-parent involvement in child's school
-elderly inclusion into the community
-healthy birth weight babies
-quality therapy opportunities for everyone in the community
-food assistance reduced to minimum with parents taking care of their children

Our strategy is to provide the opportunity to experience all that LIFE has to offer regardless of ability/disability, through: Family Empowerment, Educational Excellence, and Public Health Impact.

Family Empowerment happens through Family Based Care in Family Homes. When a child has truly been orphaned or abandoned, and when the government (Haitian) gets involved, we place these discarded children into families (Foster Care style). We also provide various Prevention Resources to help support families. We work to provide jobs and to create more jobs in the community. We help provide a Mother's Day Out daycare program where mothers can get away to the market and not be fearful of who is watching their child or what might happen to them. We believe in Respite Care for families with special needs children. We see the importance of offering families a "break" from the difficulty of their routines. We also offer support groups for parents of special needs children as well as parenting classes for our community. We believe quality parents help children achieve all that they can.

Educational Excellence happens through our school, LIFE Academy. This school provides both General and Special Needs Educational settings in an inclusive atmosphere. In this school every child has the opportunity to grow and become all they were created for. We also provide Community Educational Development through classes for at-risk teens, elderly, and we partner with Best Buddies International. We also provide LIFE Skill classes that allow teenagers to learn new skills that will be helpful as they mature. Finally, we have Community Involvement opportunities where we invite US-based teams to come and visit short-term. These teams help us put on intensives, classes, and programs for the community where we work. We also partner with the Tim Tebow Foundation to host, A Night to Shine, a prom for individuals throughout Haiti with special needs.

Public Health Impact allows us to do whatever we can to get and keep people healthy. That begins with our LIFE Clinic where we offer medical assistance to those in need. Our clinic is staffed with Haitian doctors, a Haitian Nurse Practitioner, and Haitian Nurses. This clinic treats acute illnesses as well as has the ability to refer patients to other clinics/areas that might be able to help with things we are not yet prepared for. We also offer Physical and Occupational Therapy for pediatrics and adults. We plan to begin speech and emotional trauma therapy within the next 3 years. We also offer food assistance programs for children, teens, and elderly in the community.

We have an amazing staff of Haitians. Our staff works to fulfill our goals on a daily basis. We are fully Haitian ran in each of our areas on the ground in Haiti. 165 Haitian employees working together to help us reach our 1, 5, and 10-year goals.

This past year, we have 27 kids in our full-time family care, of which 13 have special needs and 14 are typically developing. We have 28+ jobs provided by our Family Empowerment program.

Because of our Educational Excellence program, we have 4 special education classrooms teaching a total of 48 special education students. We have 9 general education classrooms (Pre K 3 - 7th grade) teaching a total of 151 general education students. We served 34,800 meals in this poverty-stricken area to our students, teachers, and support staff this past year.

Our Public Health Impact provides meals to over 105 kids and their families each month. We average around 25 moms enrolled in our Pregnant Mom program, receiving training and equipping for the nutritional needs of their child. Our LIFE clinic saw over 4,600 patients last year. Our therapy clinic treated 3,700 patients last year. We currently employ 23 people in our Public Health Impact program.

These 3 pillars (Family Empowerment, Educational Excellence, and Public Health Impact) help us create a healthy community. We see community development as a vital component in the future of Haiti. We currently serve over 11,000+ people in our village and surrounding villages and continue to see this grow.

We have 12 years of experience working in Haiti and will continue to strive to provide excellent care and nurture for the people of Haiti. We believe that a thriving community is one in which all people feel cared for, noticed, nourished, and valued, and have an equitable opportunity to contribute to the well-being and growth of themselves, their families and their communities. We must continue to find creative and effective ways to take the Gospel to Neply and beyond if we want to see Haiti forever changed. Whether we are working with children, teens, adults, or the elderly, our purpose of seeing Haiti forever changed begins in our own commUNITY. commUNITY Development is vital for Haiti.

Goals we are working toward:
-children no longer relinquished to orphanages or other families due to poverty (in our community children are not being given to orphanages or to other families)

-children in need of families have the opportunity to be placed in loving and caring families (we have placed 22 children with families (foster-style care) since 2012

-support groups for parents and special needs families (we offer a program for parents of special needs children and are working on a Respite program)

-an integrated special education/general education model (we currently have 4 full special education classes and a waiting list for a 4th. We also have 7 grades of general education children in our school) offering PK3 - 7th grade. We plan to add 8th grade in the fall.

-elderly inclusion into the community (we began a weekly feeding and elderly program where we teach numbers, letters, and basic reading skills). This program continues to grow and now is participating in community service projects monthly.

-healthy birth weight babies (this summer we are charting birth weights for mothers in our pregnant mother care program)

-quality therapy opportunities for everyone in the community and beyond (we offer physical and occupational therapy for adults and pediatric patients)

-food assistance reduced to minimum with parents taking care of their children (we fed 60,000+ meals in 2017. Our goal is to significantly reduce that number in the next 3 years).

-our garden will help supplement our food costs and train and equip the next generation to sustain on their own.