Beauty for Ashes, Inc. Bible based Modeling & Etiquette School for Progressive Youth
Building up the self esteem of our next generation
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Modeling
The Modeling program addresses the issues of Depression, Low Self Esteem, Low Self Worth, and Rejection; then reinstalls Self Acceptance, Love of Self, Confidence, Assurance, and God’s unconditional love & Acceptance (Psalms 139:14). When students learn and recognize who they are and their own personal beauty and style, they become confident and accepting of their individual selves. In this, they learn that they do not have to go looking or searching for personal validation in all of the ‘wrong places’; but they learn that all they need is the knowledge of God’s unconditional love for them. The knowledge of God’s unconditional love and acceptance usually brings about hope and peace. In this, the student in turn opens up to the possibility of learning and gaining self esteem, acceptance of self, and confidence.
Etiquette
The Etiquette program teaches proper behavior in social situations addressing the issues of low self esteem, low self worth, and improper conduct in social situations. This program teaches a variety of lessons which you would find inside of an old fashion ‘finishing school’; topics such as Social skills, Social Mannerisms, and Social Graces. In this program, the student learns that they have a choice to not behave ‘unseemly, but they can make the decision to control themselves, keep their composure, and act with respect, courtesy, love, and kindness in every social situation.
Art Appreciation
The ‘Art Appreciation and Self Expression’ program addresses the students ‘Creative Voice’. This program offers the students’ new vision, new perception about the world around them, and who they are and can be in it. It brightens their horizons and breaks the feeling of monotony and being ‘stuck’ in negative thinking because of their current living situation; many being raised up in low income neighborhoods.
The program teaches about life and culture outside of R&B and Hip-Hop, while focusing on allowing the students to experience other forms of music, i.e. Classical, Opera; also allowing the student to experience other forms of performing arts i.e. Ballet, Modern Dance. While the students experience other cultures and their forms of art expression, by seeing live performances and visiting museums, the students also receive the opportunity to explore their own history and culture during an annual visit to the African American Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art. The students are better able to receive and digest the teachings about other cultures such as Asian and American Indian when they first receive a foundational teaching of African American culture and history through the arts, and European history through the arts.
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The ‘Art Appreciation’ and ‘Self Expression’ program also teaches the students how to identify and deal with their emotions through the arts, whether they are positive or negative. Students especially learn how to identify and address the negative ones that they feel, such as anger, rage, and even grief; and learn how to express these feelings in positive artistic ways through poetry, music composition, dance, writing, drawing, or even painting which is how the student looks within themselves and identify and then learn their own ‘Creative Voice’. As the students learn their ‘Creative Voice’ they learn how to place negative feelings on paper in an art form using a pen to express themselves rather than a fist.
M.O.R.A.L. Factor
The Making Ourselves Responsible and Accountable for our Lives Factor program, or the M.O.R.A.L. Factor program is the program that basically focuses on one Biblical principle ‘choose you this day who you will serve’. In this principle the students learn or relearn the difference between right and wrong behaviors in social situations; right and wrong choices and decisions that can bring about either positive or negative consequences; how to know the difference for themselves and be accountable for making a right and positive decisions when they are in tough situations, and are given the ‘mental tools’ for making the right decision even when the choice is tough which is a sign of being a leader and not a follower.
This program deals with a variety of tough issues and situations that school age students usually come across everyday such as peer pressure and acceptance; anger and violence, i.e bullying; media pressure, i.e. tv images, negative music on the radio; abstinence and the ‘uh oh feeling’ for small students. The students are given the opportunity to talk about their experiences, reactions to these experiences, and the choices that they made in peer group discussions in order to be able to express their feelings openly and learn from either their mistakes or victories and give others an opportunity to learn. These open discussions also gives the students a chance to ‘vent’ about issues that they normally feel like they do not have the opportunity to share. Many students internalize their feelings about what is going on around them in school or at home. In the peer group discussions, the students along with two adult instructors open the topic of the day and discuss the issue. Then during the discussion, life scenarios are given to the students for an opportunity to learn how to decide between making a right or a wrong decision. Finally, the students journal their feelings on the lesson of the day along with what they have learned and how what they learned was the same or different from what they knew and would have done before; and what they will do differently and better the next time they are presented with that type of situation. Young students usually draw a positive picture about dealing with the issue of the day and how they feel i.e. if the issue is bullying, they are usually instructed to draw two people becoming friends and sharing a toy and are taught ‘isn’t making a friend better than being mean?’
The students also learn from each other through peer mentoring and regular field trips that allow them to socialize and interact with one another which develop and increases social skills.
Community Service
The Community Service program teaches the students the principle of serving your fellow man, being a good neighbor and a good friend, and showing love and respect to one another and to your community. These lessons are geared towards quelling the growth of violence in our communities by instilling love, acceptance, and unity instead.
This program teaches the students renewed respect for self, respect for elders, and respect for your community which has unfortunately become a lost art. The goal is to break the innate habit of selfishness in all of us and instead demonstrate peace and unity.
The Community Service program also teaches about serving and reaching out to those who are less fortunate and being grateful for what you are blessed with and showing appreciation for it. Outreach is the key to showing service and appreciation for your community and included is showing love.
This program also shows students that it is a whole lot harder to be angry and commit a violent act if you are serving and showing love to someone in need. Love covers a multitude of sin; God is love. And if we are showing Gods love through reaching out in community service and volunteerism, God has a chance to heal us and the community from hurt, pain, grief, loss, and anger through His unconditional love coming back to us. This is why we focus so intently on a program such as this one. The students learn that life is not just about self, but it is about looking beyond them and seeing somebody bigger and greater than they are; and then the joy in helping someone and feeling good about making them smile. It’s about adding something great to society that can bring about positive change and then thinking twice about making a negative decision that can possibly tear it down.
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Beauty for Ashes, Inc. Bible based Modeling & Etiquette School for Progressive Youth
Board of directorsas of 03/27/2018