Donate, Change Today

Image courtesy of Scott Barlow

The difference between yesterday and today’s youth is that today, many youths lack the positive role models to help them recognize their unique potential. I’m sure sometime in your life, you have had a mentor of some sort guide you to the successful adult that you are today.

Why not continue this trend of guidance with today’s youth?

Entrusted Legacy, a non-profit dedicated to finding the necessary resources to help adults become mentor’s to today’s youth, wants to ensure that every youth has someone they can look up to. And not just someone who makes a brief appearance in their lives, but rather, somebody who will invest in today’s youth by helping them recognize their potential and guiding them so they can grow into successful adults.

There are many ways that you, a reader of this article, can help Entrusted Legacy fulfill our commitment to today’s youth. Some of the ways that you can help might be to just share this article with colleagues. You can also inform somebody about the cause by directing them to our Facebook Page and help us raise 250 likes, follow us on Twitter and help us gain 200 followers, volunteer your time, OR you can donate on our Indiegogo's Donor Page or our Website's Donor Page.

Because there are so many different ways to get involved, you are in no way obliged to donate any monetary items to our non-profit organization. But, I feel motivated to tell you that the monetary donation we ask from you will neither bankrupt nor burden you. Rather, the donation we ask for is just this, a donation. If you feel inspired, motivated, interested, or driven to donate, let it be from your own volition. If you are drawing blanks as to what is “appropriate” for a donation, allow me to help you by informing you how your donation invests in the success of youths.

·         $50 donation allows 1 staff member a full year’s worth of curriculum. This is the equivalent to $4.57/month OR 1 Venti Starbuck’s Latte/month!

·         $200 provides a staff member with access to the staff development training program for the year

·         $500 provides an entire school site staff with the staff development program and curriculum for the year.  

During these past few years alone, education across the nation has experienced many drawbacks. The decline in funding for education has come with many disadvantages such as: fewer staff members, cutting after-school programs, getting rid of art programs, an inability to offer necessary school supplies, and even forcing some schools to shut down completely. While your donation to Entrusted Legacy will not solve the education crisis in America, it will help.

Entrusted Legacy, as previously stated, has a commitment to make a positive impact on the youth in California and programs across the nation. Your donation, therefore, would help Entrusted Legacy by funding training and supporting the adults who work with today’s youths in these programs. If you are not convinced of our purpose yet, think of this—local after-school programs provide youth with a safe place to be after they have been released from school.

When a school experiences a budget cut, the first programs to go are usually after-school programs. In order to operate at a high capacity and have a strong sustainable program, staff development implementation is paramount to making an after-school program into a long lasting, thriving, legacy. We can't do it alone. With your help, you can support this mission to provide youth with well-equipped, positive adult role model.

Entrusted Legacy-IRS Tax #27-2049633

Article by: James Ringer 

Your Words and Thoughts Have Physical Power—Thoughts From Will Smith

The list of movies that Will Smith has starred in range from the portrayal of real people in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness to science fiction thrillers, Men In Black (1, 2, and 3) I, Robot, Independence Day, and I Am Legend, and generally likable characters in Wild, Wild West and Hancock.  He began his career as a rapper and the star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air TV comedy.  But perhaps he is most interesting for his candid conversations about the importance of committing “ourselves to something and making it real in the universe.”  In a collection of Will Smith interviews, captured in a single see:
Your words and thoughts have physical power - Will Smith 
Smith talks about his beliefs and world view.  He begins by saying, “I love living—you can’t fake it.” 

Will shares that it is important to believe you can accomplish the impossible.  He says that being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.  He illustrates his point by sharing how unrealistic it was to think you could walk into a room, flip a switch and have instant light—until Edison made it so.  And that it was equally unrealistic that you could shape metal in a certain way and fly—until of course the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk.  He goes on to say that you don’t start out trying to build the biggest brick wall in the world, instead you start by laying the best brick as perfectly as you can and then adding another and another in the same way until you have reached your goal. 

As an obvious positive role model and mentor, Will encourages people to commit themselves to making a difference and changing someone else’s life for the better.  This commitment begins with a choice and according to Smith, there is a redemptive power in making a choice—in knowing who you are working to become and how you will get there.  We all have an opportunity to make a difference and can do something to change the world, both directly and indirectly.  We need to find a cause we believe in and then go to work.

At Entrusted Legacy our cause is simple.  We believe that every youth needs to have a positive role model and mentor that they can connect with on a regular basis.  We also believe that the afterschool space is perfect for this interaction because of the adults who have the desire to work with kids.  We encourage you to join with Entrusted Legacy to sponsor afterschool professionals as they become the mentors and role models that they would like to be and our youth deserve.  Check out our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org or contact us a support@entrustedlegacy.org