LIGHTING THE PATH ENTERPRISES
Sharing Christ, Empowering People, Changing Lives
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
One of the biggest barriers to education, health and opportunity is living in poverty. Lighting the Path Enterprises believes that a step to alleviating the issues of poverty is offering education, skill and vocational training. It devotes it's energy to meeting the needs and economically empowering marginalized populations with sustainable solutions which include education, training, supplies and micro-finance support. Lighting the Path's mission aligns with the United Nations Millennium Development Goal(MDG), which is to end extreme poverty. By empowering individuals with education and job skills, instruction in the production of salable goods and creation of sustainable businesses we help families increase income, nutrition, education and access to healthcare and raise the standard of living which is improving lives. We rescue young women and give them a safe place to live and learn skills to support themselves in the future.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Women's center, Burkina Faso, West Africa
This is a training and empowerment center working with women. We train women in good small enterprise skills and teach them to make soap, cook, sew or weave a product or improve harvest skills.
Kimini Women's soap enterprise
Lighting the Path has assisted women in the village of Kimini to form an association. We have taught them small business practices and how to make soap and lotion to use and sell.
Sugared Peanut Small Enterprise, micro finance
Lighting the Path has begun micro finance projects with women living in poverty in Burkina Faso, West Africa. We have taught women small business practices, how to make sugared peanuts and provided the equipment and supplies to begin producion
Street Business School
Business development program focused on educating those interested in starting a business or improving a current business. Classes are focused on Immigrant, refugee and under served populations.
Giving Hope Project
Empowerment project for immigrant and refugee women in St. Louis, MO. We are teaching women sewing, cooking and soap making skills to allow them to start their own small business. We are teaching small business skills to help them open ans successfully run a business.
The Path of Hope Residential Technical School for Girls
We have opened a residential school for girls in West Africa to teach girls sewing, weaving, small business skills and more to allow them to support themselves in the future. We take in abandoned, trafficked or child bride girls off the streets, give them a safe place to live and learn. We teach them skills for a better future, provide food, shelter and health care along with a loving community.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Billion Acts of Peace Global Hero Award 2016
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of groups/individuals benefiting from tools/resources/education materials provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Women's center, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We are teaching women how to sew, make soap and weave ect. along with small business skills to start their own small business.
Number of people no longer living in unsafe or substandard housing as a result of the nonprofit's efforts
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Women's center, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This is the number of girls we have taken into the residential school upon opening in 2021
Number of students enrolled in service-learning courses
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
this is the 20 girls at our school in West Africa and 132 students in the Tororo, Uganda youth training project.
Number of homeless participants engaged in housing services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Women's center, Burkina Faso, West Africa
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The number of young women living in our residential dormitory at the technical school
Number of job skills training courses/workshops conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Kimini Women's soap enterprise
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Skills classes and empowerment project training for teaching skills and small business practices to open a business and earn an income. Most training was in West Africa with impoverished women.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Lighting the Path has a mission to develop empowerment projects for marginalized populations living in poverty with the aim to educate and train individuals with skills to promote independence, self-reliance, dignity and improve the quality of life for them and their family. We focus on rescuing girls and young women who have been abandoned, trafficked or given in child marriage. We give them a safe place to live and learn and help them build a life and a future. We have found that once a woman becomes self sufficient and begins earning a living, her entire family benefits and the economic standing of the entire community improves as people are empowered. As people become empowered they have the skills to then teach others and our efforts are multiplied. We aim to educate under served populations and empower them to improve their lives finding that education and empowerment directly helps in ending poverty. We show the love of Christ in all we do and promote self-reliance and empowerment of the marginalized.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Lighting the Path looks at marginalized populations both in the United States and 3rd world countries to develop an approach to promoting self-reliance. We look at needs, resources available, skills already known and skills which can be taught, beneficial products for the population and potential markets to then develop an approach. We meet with the people and learn their cultural ways, needs, expectations and commitment to then begin training in business practices. We then bring in supplies to implement the project and train the people in how to use and manufacture the product, help them with marketing and small business strategies. We are planning to open a community center in the US to focus on assisting immigrants, refugees and marginalized populations.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have built a technical school in West Africa which is a residential campus giving abandoned and rescued young women and girls a safe place to live and learn skills to build a future for themselves. We teach skills in sewing, weaving and more along with small business skills.
We are skilled in evaluating and determining all the aspects of a project. We have spent time with the people in their country to learn about them, their culture and what practices are best. We have purchased and transported supplies to the villages to then implement training and manufacturing of products. We assisted with initial production, packaging and marketing to insure these skills are understood and the individuals in the project are fully capable of continuing independently. We do follow up visits and meetings to insure all is moving forward and provide support, additional training and review the project. We also have certification in the Street Business School education program which we utilize to assist marginalized populations in business ideas and business development
In the US we are teaching free small business classes along with skills classes such as sewing, soap making and cooking. We are planning to open a community center to expand our classes and services to immigrants, refugees and marginalized populations.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have build a residential technical school for girls in West Africa. This allows us to rescue girls from the streets, trafficking and child marriage and give them a safe place to live and learn and grow. We empower them to build skills to have a good future and graduate prepared to start a small business of their own.
We have successfully assisted in organizing a women's association and implemented an empowerment project in the village of Kimini. the women are making soap, lotion and liquid soap and are making considerable money. They are following the best business practices we have taught them and are very successful in their efforts. Our success has generated a great deal of interest and we are receiving many requests to implement projects in other villages and other countries.
Our women's center, L'Oasis D'Espoir, in Burkina Faso is successfully training women in skills and good business practices. We are expanding our class offerings and assisting women with opening their own businesses.
We have begun business development classes in St. Louis, MO and have partnered with a local university there. The classes are popular and successful and we have requests for additional classes. We also have sewing skills classes and cooking classes with students growing in numbers monthly.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
LIGHTING THE PATH ENTERPRISES
Board of directorsas of 07/11/2023
Dawn Malcolm
Lighting the Path
Term: 2012 -
Susan Schlueter
Kirskville Missouri School District
Rebecca Shepherd
Barbara Ruiz
Karen Robinson Moore
St. Louis University
Cheryl Aston
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 07/11/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.