OUR VISION

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The Alliance for Community Empowerment (ACE) mission is to connect youth and young adults between the age of 8 - 21 with mentorship access and support needed to achieve their life goals through community involvement in sports, education, cultural events, and activities of their communities.

 

Alliance for Community empowerments strives to empower at-risk youth and young adults to create positive change in their communities through taking control of their life goals.

 

The Alliance for Community Empowerment will establish cross-sector partnerships to provide direct services, assisting youth and young adults that are seeking other options in their education, on the verge of dropping out of school or have dropped out school, or who may be a part of the juvenile justice system. This agency will provide cultural performing arts and community events for all ages, community service projects, youth educational seminars, resource referrals that assist with transitioning into educational programs that best suit student needs, and leadership development.

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CURRENT CHALLENGES

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Each day, existing government and private agencies struggle to serve the needs of at-risk youth and their communities: limited resources, limited cultural competency among agency leadership, failure to hire qualified people from the neighborhood, continued academic achievement gaps among historically marginalized populations, lack of effective and consistent mentorship and leadership development programs, no clear network of services or standardized intake processes, and inconsistent financial resources constantly under threat of financial cutbacks.

 

Faced with these challenges, many agencies attempt to serve only the majority population in the immediate neighborhood, choosing one marginalized population over the other.  With so many agencies providing services to just one or two populations, and no clear coalition or network, the labor-intensive process of accessing services from the appropriate agency detracts from the very populations the agencies attempt to serve.

 

The current, fractured approach does not work and compounds existing threats to the success of youth and young adults: risk factors for high school dropout, social pressure to join gangs, lack of high quality and appealing sports programs, and limited access to high-quality education and support services.

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OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

 

Rather than competing against other agencies for funding, Alliance for Community Empowerment will establish lasting and effective working relationships with community members, at-risk youth, and other agencies to improve access to quality services that are responsive to the needs of the community and facilitate lasting empowerment of historically marginalized populations of King and Pierce counties.

 

Alliance for Community Empowerment will establish a collaborative, community-integrated support program by actively engaging community members, counseling staff, and other faculty at middle and high schools, and other non-profit agencies as active partners in assessing needs, generating solution steps, and providing referrals and direct services to at-risk student populations.  Alliance for Community Empowerment is committed to generating employment opportunities by hiring staff from the community as well as establishing paid internships for at-risk youth enrolled in the program.  Additionally, Alliance for Community Empowerment will involve at-risk youth in the leadership and direction of the program, including youth board member positions. 

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SERVICES

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Alliance for Community Empowerment’s programs will serve the needs of at-risk youth through community service projects, cultural and community events, youth educational seminars that will create a summer leadership academy, resource referrals, academic support, leadership development, and providing high-quality sports camps.  These community-based interventions will take place in many different settings, creating the greatest access to services to at-risk youth and their families, providing direct services such as academic advising, tutoring, admissions support (high school and college), service learning, leadership training, and sports camps at community centers, schools, and eventually at an Alliance for Community Empowerment facility.

All programs will be grant-funded, providing services at no cost to at-risk youth and community members, in keeping with Alliance for Community Empowerment’s mission to provide resources and guidance in the most inclusive way possible.