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ABOUT US
I am incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to introduce you to Esteem Corps, (EC) our 501(c)(3) non-profit based in South Central Los Angeles. We established our organization in 2008 under the name of Youth Esteem Corps. Though in time we knew as an organization we needed another entity that could concentrate on the community as a Whole. And allow Youth Esteem Corop to concentrate on the youths. And since then have been boots on the ground working in our community. In 2011 we received the prestigious Jefferson Award for our work refurbishing basketball hoops. Over the years, even with limited funds and capacity, we have never missed a year of providing school supplies and Christmas toys to our youth.
Our short-term goal is to establish a center where we can engage our community in daily face-to-face interaction, this will enable us to understand their needs and start a measuring scale to anticipate our progress. We want to have the capacity to open a kitchen that will enable us to provide three meals a day to our community members who are in need. We will also provide a computer lab, for both children and parents who can’t afford computers or internet access, as well as space with exercise apparatus. All the while building our referral system so that we can assist them with their basic daily needs.
Our organization will assist our community in understanding the power of their collective voice. Esteem Corps Community Resource Center will be a start to the necessary change.
In our inception, our primary focus was on at-risk youth, but as our mission becomes clearer we know that in order to be successful we have to not only change and challenge the mindset of the youth but change the landscape around them. And in doing so we accept the harsh reality of our environment and still learn to thrive. Every person on the EC team is a byproduct of our environment. Our experience of being born and raised in South Central Los Angeles qualifies us as best suited for the task at hand.
The harsh reality is that our organization has to ascend from the gutters of South-Central Los Angeles where you’ll find the dead bodies lying in the streets, bleeding out. This is where the drug dealers peddle their ware and where the street prostitutes do business. This is where the youth of Urban America learn to emulate their so-called “urban heroes”. We are not at all disillusioned as an organization. We’re committed and driven by our mission of continual collective community esteem for change.
Today our mission has clarity. In order to bring about the lasting change in the lives of Urban Americans, we must be the pioneers, architects, and teachers of, yes we can. Our long-term vision is to become a total Community Resource Center. That will enable us to provide continual resources for change.