Your Time for Creative Empowerment, Inc.

The goals of Your Time For Creative Empowerment, Inc. are to: 1. Introduce the arts, fashion and culture as wildly used vehicles through which parents, community members and youth can create solutions to life's challenges and pitfalls. 2.Foster parent-child and intergenerational relationships. 3.Unite communities by providing tools for youth involvement. 4.Provide self-help solutions for personal development and social relationships. 5.Reduce the stress of college life for students, and to set the stage for academic excellence. 6.Decrease the potential for high school and college failure and/or drop-out. 7.Empower children, adolescents and parents. 8. Increase the potential for youth and family on-going participation in programs and activities.

1.Collaborate with professionals in the arts, fashion and culture fields to illustrate the effectiveness of these 'tools' as solutions for 21st Century life challenges and pitfalls 2.Work collaboratively with teaching artists, human service professionals and experts to create and provide arts-centered solutions templates that are specific to life's challenges today.
3. Develop opportunities for youth to creatively express themselves through the depiction of themes that can serve as inspiration for discussion of issues impacting upon youth and families 4. Recruit volunteer Resource Persons from various professional backgrounds to engage youth in open, honest non-judgmental conversations regarding life success strategies. 5. Partner with schools, churches, community organizations through the recruitment of volunteer representatives who will effectively introduce the mission of our organization as an enhancement to their constituents; regardless of race, creed, socioeconomic status or religious persuasion.

The CEO and the recently deceased James Lacy, who as Program Director, developed effective templates from a wealth of professional and personal experiences in the area of effective human services, program administration, mental health, art and the education.
This and a network of individuals obtained as a result of their exceptional collaborative skills to connect with other qualified and experienced members of the Long Island community will continue to make a big difference to meeting the goals. We will also seek to introduce on a regular basis, our work and mission to like-minded individuals who can be supportive of our vision. We will also collaborate with other community organizations who work with youth and/or parents, continue to strengthen our bond with local businesses, schools, libraries, banks, colleges who can bring their unique talents and gifts to the table.

The CEO has extensive experience as a visual artist who specializes in creating artistic solutions with her brand of art, which in her experience as a NY State certified teacher and a current Long Island Teaching Artist, she has used as a tool to motivate and empower numerous students. Her unique ability to combine art, fashion, the awareness of cultural diversity and personal development to maximize the potential of youth for success within the social, educational and cultural sphere while engaging parents and the community, is one from which many students and teachers have benefited.

The organization is in the process of searching for a program director whose credentials will match that of Mr. James Lacy’s who had many years of experience in program development and management, and served as Program Director of several human services programs and as Executive Director of a major multi-million dollar community action agency.

The outcome of our major activities and events have been quite encouraging in the following ways: 14 students from school districts across Long Island participated in our first (2014/15) Creative Empowerment Arts Contest. Their creative arts expressions clearly reflected that they all understood the use of the arts as a mechanism for communication, and for raising their awareness of and developing solutions for the issues that impact their lives in the 21st Century. To date $12,000 in scholarships have been awarded to the Contest winners! Our Free annual Self-Empowering Workshop for College Bound High School Students & Their Parents, and our Community Networking Soirée events have been attended thus far by approximately 300 youth, parents and volunteer resource persons from the business and professional community. Positive feedback on their impressions of the quality and value of the Your Time For Creative Empowerment experience. These activities have provided mechanisms for youth involvement that unites communities; and have included open and honest conversations between youth, parents, resource persons and community role models that engender self-help solutions for personal development and social relationships. we have provided tools for stress reduction of college life for students, and set the stage for academic excellence.

The support of community businesses and organizations such as Panera Bread, the Art League of Long Island, Noodles and Company, TD Bank, Citibank, Dunkin' Donuts, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Staples and C-Town Supermarket, to name a few, has help us tremendously. We are still working on making Your Time For Creative Empowerment, Inc. a household name. The relationship we have established with Molloy College is one we strive for with other area colleges and school districts. We are actively working at establishing partnership with other community organizations in Nassau County as well as, Suffolk County.Thus far we have been able to prepare high school students to effectively deal with the social aspect of high school and college life and its pitfalls through our Self-Empowering Workshop, Community Networking Soiree and Creative Arts Contest. This has been accomplished through the participation of community volunteers, fundraising activities and in-kind contributions from the Founder, Program Director, and the above mentioned local businesses. Now that we have acquired our 501(c)(3) status, we have plans to attract funders to supplement these programs, and give us the financial backing to effectively implement other programs that address issues such as self-esteem, parenting skills, interpersonal relationships and social media pitfalls. The Board of Directors has not yet been able to formerly put in place the administrative staff for the organization due to lack of funds. Thus far, time for administrative functions has been donated by the Founder/CEO and Program Director.