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Organizational Overview
Changes in community needs and funding priorities have made it necessary for the organization to broaden it scope of services into other areas, such as support programs for young adults who are at risk of poverty and incarceration. Through our direct experience it became apparent that the children of parents with HIV/AIDS were left with a serious void. More often than not these children were facing adolescence without the guidance and life skills necessary to transition to adulthood. Due to this lack of support during this formative time, these young adults now face formidable barriers in building successful futures. They are less prepared educationally, have a harder time embarking on productive careers, abuse drugs and alcohol, and are more likely to be involved with the legal justice system.
Based on evolving community needs, we revised our mission: to provide comprehensive services for young men and women at-risk of poverty and incarceration by providing life skills training created specifically to address social and economic barriers to self-sufficiency. Thus in 2002, COPWA assumed the d.b.a. Guiding Light to allow for an expansion of our scope of services the serve the current needs of the community.
Guiding Light Programs
"PROJECT THERE IS NO STOPPING US NOW"
Last year, GUIDING LIGHT implemented a supplementary Life-Slills Training Initiaitive for young men and women at-risk of poverty and incarceration; by providing them with life skills education, counseling and guidance towards proudctive living.
To meet this populations's needs, we have designed a life skills training series that emphasizes three vital "life-skill" areas: HOUSING, EDUCATION, AND EMPLOYMENT. The training will provide young men and women (ages 17-24) with independent living skills. The program consists of a series of twenty five (25) sessions over a three-month period.
Programs outcomes include: (1) increasing the education level of New York City's at-risk young men and women, (2) reducing the unemployment rate of local young men and women (3) decreasing the treat of homelessness among the young people of New York City and (4) reducing the susceptibility to drug addiction and gang involvement among New York City's at-risk young people.
Upon completion of the program, each client will have his or her own "Personal Program Plan" in place that will provide the direction and encouragement needed for successful life achievemenets.
The first new addition to the program will be a College Tour offered to those individuals who have graduated the training series, and also to sudents recruited from the larger NYC community. In addition to local colleges, the college tour will take students on a three-day tour down the east coast, and will visit colleges including Florida State, Florida A&M, and Claflin University in South Carolina. Additionally, students will be surveyed about institutions that they are interested in visiting, and the most popular choice will be included in the tour. Hand in hand with our emphasis on post-high school possibilities for program participants will be our newly ceated Scholarship Fund. Guiding Light's Scholarship Fund, will be divided between three deserving graduates based on academic performance, and will go towards the next phase of their education.
Secondly, Guiding Light has begun a new initiative to involve participants in the training in community service activities to instill a sense of community responsibility and giving back. For three years, Guiding Light has been running a Community Food Distribution Program, sponsored by Feed the Children, comprised of four distributions annually and one Annual Holiday Toy Distribution-Christmas Angel Tree, toys sponsored by the Children Affected By AIDS Foundation and various local donations. These initatives began as part of our HIV programs, and have now been incorporated into There's No Stopping Us Now, with much success.
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Annual Holiday Toy Distribution-Christmas Angel Tree
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| Carnetta Clark, Linda Fleming, Tony Mullen and Fred Samuels Corporate Manager |
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| Tony Mullen and COPWA Employee |
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| Tony Mullen, Board of Director playing the role of Santa at Angel Tree Celebration |
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"PROJECT BRIDGING THE GAP"
GUIDING LIGHT'S early permanency-planning program, PROJECT BRIDGING THE GAP, targets mothers and fathers infected/affected by HIV/AIDS and helps them to develop an individual permanency plan for their child(ren). The program combines educational workshops, one-on-one counseling and case management services that focuses on the whole family as opposed to the individual, thus providing a holistic and comprehensive approach to permanency planning. The men/women are introduced to custody planning through a series of workshops entitled PRESERVING MEMORIES.
"PROJECT BRIDGING THE GAP"
GUIDING LIGHT'S early permanency-planning program, PROJECT BRIDGING THE GAP, targets mothers and fathers infected/affected by HIV/AIDS and helps them to develop an individual permanency plan for their child(ren). The program combines educational workshops, one-on-one counseling and case management services that focuses on the whole family as opposed to the individual, thus providing a holistic and comprehensive approach to permanency planning. The men/women are introduced to custody planning through a series of workshops entitled PRESERVING MEMORIES.
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