Reflecting on the Year

During 2013 Entrusted Legacy had an opportunity to try out several strategies to enlist the support of people across the country and the world to ensure that afterschool professionals are well-prepared to be positive role models and mentors for youth.  Some strategies were very successful—Kayla’s Campaign, crafting a grant-win plan, and figuring out how to enlist the support of individual donors.  This lead-up work has prepared us to launch into 2014 with a solid Business Plan and plenty of opportunities to make a difference in the lives of both adults and youth.  We would encourage you to check us out at www.entrustedlegacy.org and become part of our noble cause.  You may not have the time to be a role model and mentor for youth but you can support someone who does have that time.  Be part of what Margaret Mead calls, “small number of thoughtful, committed individuals” and help us change the world.

Our vision and mission have stayed the same.

Our Vision

·         A cadre of well-trained people forming the nucleus around which learning organizations are built

Our Mission

·         Holistically train adults who work with youth to be a positive role model and mentor for youth

Our Goals

·         We will service 100 Million Youth and 20 Million Adults by 2023.

·         We will prepare youth workers to instruct, support, encourage, motivate, and develop youth by being positive role models and mentors.

·         We will engage everyone in helping us level the playing field for youth.

·         We will uncover an individual's talents, skills, passions, and interests; preparing them to make his/her unique contribution to the world.

Entrust your legacy with us.  Contact us at support@entrustedlegacy.org, by calling (661) 322-3437, or going on line at www.entrustedlegacy.org and donating now!

Importance of Mission Driven Work

What does it really mean to be a mission driven non-profit?  Certainly it means to embrace a social cause and be essentially purpose driven to address this social cause.  It is important that we are able to integrate the cause into our mission and our values and establish core business practices to we can have an authentic social impact and accomplish our mission. 

As a non-profit, we agree with Steven Van Yoder.  He states that a mission-driven non-profit cannot succeed on the passion of the Board and a few volunteers.  He goes on to say that a mission-driven organization needs the commitment of others to support the economic engine required to accomplish its goals.  He then indicates that the mission must be supported by core values and beliefs.  He also stated that the organization must be absolutely committed to the cause and the work to be done to fulfill the cause. 

At Entrusted Legacy we think that afterschool programs are a vital part of the solution for reinvigorating learning in our K-12 system.  We are committed to supporting the adults who work with youth by providing the training and staff development needed by these youth workers to successfully role model and mentor these youth. 

If you find our mission compelling, we ask you to entrust your legacy with us and help us to make a difference in the lives of youth and youth leaders.  There is an old adage that states, “Many hands make hard work light” and we believe that our mission can be accomplished if we work together.  Please fo to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and invest in the future of our youth.  

Margaret Mead Had It Right!

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who was often a speaker in the 1960s and 1970s.  She understood this country and its citizens and what made us great.  She understood that while we prided ourselves on being rugged individualists that we achieved our best results when we worked together.  Much like the rowing team in the Olympics, a team that works together for a common cause in a steady cadence is likely to win the race.  Mead put it this way, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." 

So what does this have to do with Entrusted Legacy?  Everything!  We have access to a professional development system that can train, teach, and support afterschool staff 24/7.  Our goals are huge!  Through this service we will:

• Serve 100 Million Youth and 20 Million Adults by 2023.
• Prepare youth workers to instruct, support, encourage, motivate, and develop youth by being positive role models and mentors.
• Engage everyone in helping us to level the playing field for youth.
• Uncover an individual's talents, skills, passions, and interests; preparing them to make his/her unique contribution to the world.

If we work together, each of us reinforcing the work of the other, we can meet these goals.  Please join us by logging into www.entrustedlegacy.org and investing in our goals and your legacy.  Together we can make this happen!

Building Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity.  It is what helps us get up and keep going.  It is discovered by being persistent and remembering that you must never give up.  Persistence has also been identified as “stick-to-it-iveness”, “grit”, determination, resolve and tenacity.  No matter what you call it, it is an essential ingredient in building the resilience needed to keep on keeping on, especially when things aren’t going well.  There is an expression, “from adversity, steel” which helps us to realize that adversity is not unusual nor is it a deal breaker.  Adversity is to be expected and the way to overcome it is through persistence.  And when you make it to the other side of the adversity, you will be resilient and that much better prepared to handle the next challenge that comes your way. 

Resilience is also essential if Entrusted Legacy is going to reach its goals.  When we set our goals and declared them to the world we were also inviting the support of all who can hear us whether verbally or through writing.  We asked them and now you to join forces with us to ensure that our mission-driven cause could be accomplished. 

At Entrusted Legacy we made the commitment to ensure that no youth would “fall through the cracks” because he/she did not have a well-trained and positive role model and mentor to help and support them find the road to resiliency through perseverance.

We still need help from everyone to reach our goals.  Please join with us to make a difference in the world.  Go to our website and invest in this cause.  You can find Entrusted Legacy at www.entrustedlegacy.org  We need you.  Entrust your legacy with us.

Recipe for a Productive New Year

Entrusted Legacy is a non-profit committed to making a difference in the lives of youth through the role models and mentors that work closely with them.  Entrusted legacy began in our hearts years ago.  There was a time when we were satisfied to make a difference with the youth that we actually worked with ourselves.  As educators this was between 25 and 35 youth each year, and we were pleased.  And then we “advanced” and we realized as an educator with administrative responsibilities we could reach even more youth—say 700-800 hundred a year, and this thrilled us.  Then, we realized that through the power of the internet it would be possible to harness the commitment of millions to change the lives of one-hundred million youth and the twenty million adults who work with them, and Entrusted Legacy was born. 

Here is the recipe to make this dream a reality:

Ingredients:

·         One vehicle to provide laser focus (the Entrusted Legacy organization and website)

·         Many caring adults who will commit to sponsoring the training of role models and mentors (YOU)

·         A small monthly financial commitment from each of those adults (Price of a single latte)

Directions:

Mix well and share with afterschool professionals to ensure they are well-trained to be the positive role model and mentor they desire to be and youth deserve.

Help us to help youth!  Entrust your legacy with us.  Make a difference in the lives of youth everywhere.  Go to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and simply click on the “Donate” button and sign up to support this cause.  Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Investing in the Future

Have you viewed the YouTube Video, Did You Know?  It was updated for 2012 and can be watched at :

  

Did You Know 3.0 (Officially updated for 2012) HD

In this video it asks questions beginning with, “Did you know”.  Here are some of the questions:

• China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world?
• 25% of India’s brightest and best youth is a number larger than all the youth in the United States?
• ½ of what is learned in college by Freshman will be outdated by the time the young adult is a Junior?
• We are preparing youth for jobs that don’t exist which will solve problems we don’t even know about with technologies that haven’t yet been invented?
• There were 31,000,000,000 searches on Google last year?
• There are 5 times the number of words in English today than there were when Shakespeare was writing?
• In one newspaper issue today the reader gets more information that he/she would have had in a lifetime in the 1800’s?

The video ends with the question—So, what does it all mean?

For us at Entrusted Legacy it means that we need to be sure our youth have the positive role models and mentors they need to be able to develop the grit and resiliency needed to meet these challenges.  Entrusted Legacy has partnered with Consult 4 Kids to provide a comprehensive staff development program tailored for their needs.  Learn more about us by visiting our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and trust your legacy with us. 

Building Capacity

Building capacity is an approach to development that “focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results.”  "BUILDING CAPACITY"  Capacity building is not just about today it is also about the future.  Building capacity empowers people to reach their potential.  Building capacity impacts the lives of individuals, and also impacts families and communities as well.

Each of us has possibilities within us that are not yet recognized.  As we grow and learn we strengthen our capacity to “become”.  To help youth unleash the power within them, it is essential that they have a positive role model and mentor to help guide the way.  A role model is someone to emulate, a person to guide you on your way as you learn how to navigate the world.

 

We know that grit and resiliency are results of having a positive role model and mentor.  At Entrusted Legacy we are championing the people who work with other people’s children in out-of-school time programs.  While everyone can’t be the person who works with youth, everyone can support those who work with youth.  Entrust Your Legacy with us as we support the development of role models and mentors.  Go to our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and invest today.