Jessie Friesen

Working with kids has been a passion of mine since I was old enough to babysit. I spent the majority of my time in college (outside of studying and soccer, of course) working with the AKAA Project, a nonprofit dedicated to helping improve the lives of an impoverished community in Ghana. The group did everything from raising money to help fund school supplies to building a water pump for fresh water in the village. On my trip to Ghana, I was lucky enough to experience a variety of ways of helping the community, some of which included teaching classes and even helping carry cement to build a sustainable toilet! That trip combined my love for children with my passion for helping communities grow. So, when I moved to Chicago, I knew I needed to work with an organization that allowed me to do both.

After working with Chicago Youth Centers’ (CYC) branch, Fellowship House, in the past, I knew exactly want I wanted to do for this year’s regifting. CYC provides tools, resources, experiences and opportunities to Chicago’s youth and their families, specifically in underprivileged communities. CYC provides a large variety of services that span from violence prevention to school partnerships to building after-school community centers.

Fellowship house in particular provides many different events surrounding community engagement and youth development. First, my $500 is going to supplies for the annual CYC food basket giveaway, where CYC/Fellowship House members will be putting together and handing out baskets of food for families and individuals in need for the holidays. My time will not only be going toward assisting in events like this throughout the year but also to helping Fellowship House and CYC create a consistent branding identity system with flyers, posters and other extendable pieces. This will help build trust within the communities they work with and help CYC expand their footprint to help more kids and families in need. My hope is that through building a more recognizable brand, it will help more youths and families come to take advantage of what CYC offers for them and in turn hopefully improve their overall well-being!

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