Learn how Better Family Life Inc.’s mentorship program is empowering youth and building strong communities at The Power Is Yours Teen Rally on April 3.
For Caleb Camp and Jayla Gordon-Spraggins, the main takeaway from growing up in the environment of Better Family Life, Inc. is the guidance, influence, and advice sowed in their young lives.
As they prepare for the 15th Annual Teen Empowerment Rally on Wednesday, April 3 at the Chaifetz Arena, it’s the mentorship that has played a major role in shaping their lives in the right direction. This year’s rally theme is “The Power is Yours.”
Founded in 1983, Better Family Life (BFL) is a 501(C)3 not-for-profit community development corporation based in St. Louis, MO that works to stabilize inner-city neighborhoods. BFL’s vision is to reduce intergenerational poverty through a robust workforce, housing, youth leadership development programs, and increased economic opportunities for populations residing in urban core communities.
Gordon-Spraggins, 21, BFL’s youth department office manager, grew up attending the organization’s summer camps, after-school programs, and modern dance programs since age four.
“Better Family Life has given me a different experience that the world and the streets can’t provide,” she says. “It’s helping me stay out of the way of things. The different mentors have guided me through many situations in my life.”
Camp, 25, is the youth specialist, educator, and media coordinator, and has been part of BFL since age 8. He interned there at the tender age of 14 and started working full-time with the organization four years ago.
“It’s the mentoring I’ve gained that has impacted me the most,” he says. “The mentors at Better Family Life are giving me a piece of themselves to help me learn about Black culture and the understanding of where I came from.”
On this day, during a telephone interview, he was on a bus chaperoning 44 high school students on a college tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the South. The tour began Monday, March 25, and concludes Friday, March 29.
So far, during the five-day trip, they have visited Tennessee State University and Fisk University in Tennessee; Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse University, and Spillman College in Georgia; and were en route to Alabama State in Alabama and Florida A&M University in Florida.
“We’re all over the place,” he says. “Staying in hotels and enjoying the trip.”
Better Family Life, Inc. will host the yearly Teen Empowerment Rally that is designed to unite, empower, and excite youth about making proud, and responsible choices. The goal is to encourage youth to develop the skills and knowledge needed to form and sustain healthy relationships. BFL programs are designed to give youth powerful tools needed to live positive and healthy lifestyles.
The rally happens on Wednesday, April 3, from 9:00 AM. until 12:30 PM at the Chaifetz Arena located, at 1 S. Compton Ave. in mid-town St. Louis. More than 3,000 attendees from St. Louis and surrounding cities are expected to be in attendance.
Both Camp and Gordon-Spraggins promise that this year’s teen empowerment event will be the biggest and best yet. The guest list includes motivational speaker MJ Hill; rappers Ty Glizzy, Karma2zz, and Fl3x. Also, bands from Carr Lane Visual and Performing Arts Middle School, Jennings High School, and East St. Louis High School will perform, as well as the Cahokia High School Dance Team.
Gordon-Spraggins describes the significance of the teen event this way: “It’s going to be lit.”
BFL’s VP of Youth, Family and Clinical Services, Marquette Connor, VP of Youth, Family, and Clinical Services, says the teen rally is part of BFLs overall agenda to empower youth against “the stigmas associated” with where they live.
“It is time that we get on one agenda to empower our youth against the stigmas associated with being in a certain neighborhood or zip code, the racial inequities and disparities they encounter each and every day; we have to remove the stigma of mental health services not being needed or necessary in our community because it is,” King-Conner believes.
“The old saying of ” what happens in this house, stays in this house” can no longer be the norm in our community because in silence there is trauma; there is hurt; there is an abundance of unresolved pain. It’s time to position ourselves for Healing and Restoration because we all need it and deserve it!!!!!!!”
#mentorship #youthempowerment #communitydevelopment
