WS Chronicle

By Ashley Howard-Jones

Expressions of gratitude filled the banquet hall of the Enterprise Center as Honorable Youth Inc. honored 22 single mothers during the Two-Generations Program award ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 17.

Single mothers and daughters were celebrated for their yearlong participation in Honorable Youth Inc.’s Two-Generations Program, an outreach program designed to help single mothers and girls achieve their educational, personal and financial goals.

“We started this initiative to bring the parents in and have an activity for them to do with their daughters,” said Rasheeda Shankle, president and founder of Honorable Youth Inc. “This year was a pilot program and it was definitely a success, so we are just excited.”

This pilot group, which began in January 2018, made a commitment to meet once a month for two to three hours to attend workshops on financial literacy, leadership development, college preparation, money management and more.

“The time we’ve spent in this program brought me and my daughter closer together,” said Latrenda Dixon, a program participant who recently relocated to Winston-Salem. “We went through some hardships. My daughter recently lost her father. Rasheeda became like family to us. Honorable Youth was more than I anticipated.” 

“This program is more like a family,” said Brittany Broadway, a program participant. “We were always greeted with warm smiles, hugs, and no one ever passed judgement on the next person. This was the best decision that I have made so far.”

Mayor Pro Tempore Vivian Burke brought greetings and presented each family with a $500 stipend for their participation in the program.

“The city is a better place because we have people who lift people to make a difference,” said Burke.

“You see us standing here and we didn’t always look like this. We had our struggles and we’ve had our hard times … but we’ve made it because we had some good people to help lift us,” she said. 

Guest speakers for the program included Ja’Nat Adams of EMACK Consulting, LLC and Dr. Craig Richardson, director of the Center for the Study of Economic Mobility at Winston-Salem State University.

The Two-Generations Program will start back in January, continuing with the current participants. Honorable Youth hopes to eventually receive more funding so they can add more families.

“Funding only allows us to take on so many women,” said Shankle. “…We want to definitely make sure that we can extend this to any and everybody who feels that they need economic security within their households.”

Shankle, a graduate of Winston-Salem State University, started Honorable Youth in 2015 after experiencing hardships as a single mother living in East Winston. Honorable Youth Inc.’s mission is to rebuild communities and inspire youth and their parents to reach their full potential by providing them with enrichment programs and resources needed to thrive in school, be better citizens, and to help them achieve intergenerational economic security.

For more information about Honorable Youth, Inc. visit www.honorableyouth.org.