“This is our first year as a CAN affiliate, and I am so grateful to the Woodson Center for providing the organizational training and funding support that has allowed our organization to start a new docuseries, that will educate our youth about public policy and politicians and how [the youth] can advocate for themselves, to influence change in policies to improve their school and community.”
Roderick “Ricky” Joseph founded The Level Up Campaign to encourage healthy lifestyles and provide programs with resources to improve the well-being of residents in underserved communities. His organization serves youth who grow up in low-income families and are more likely to have poor decision-making habits and be at risk for juvenile delinquency.
“After high school, I ended up going down the wrong path, which led me to serve a three-year prison sentence,” said Ricky. “While I was incarcerated, I was able to regain sight of the person I wanted to become.” Upon Ricky’s release, he discovered a new purpose – to create an organization that could serve the needs of people who had faced these same challenges.
Over the last three years, this New Orleans-based program has provided 500 young people with mentoring services, from helping them to learn how to grow, cook, and sell their own food; to providing digital homework tutoring, assistance with employment application forms, and workforce development.
Ricky is using the 2022 Woodson Center mini grant to launch a new project called “Save Our Youth NOLA,” which will allow “50 to 100 young people to obtain skills training and stable employment in media, marketing production, self-advocacy, gardening, culinary skills, and the arts.”
Because of supporters like you, Ricky can use the seed money to also help his organization visually document the progress of this innovative mentoring tool. We look forward to showing you this documentary once it is completed!
Read more about The Level-Up Campaign:
https://www.thelevelupcamp.org/