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Founder's Initiative

August 14th, 2015 marked 11 years of life for Change 4a Dollar as an organization. In honor of our birthday, we launched C4D Founder's Initiative; this will be a series of community service projects specially designed to impact the communities in which we serve. The goal of each event is to harvest a mindset of community leadership in the minds of our youth, by exposing them to issues that plague their community and teaching them techniques to address them. Our founder, Curtis Singleton, believes that community engagement from organizations such as ours is the lifeline to any distressed community. In alignment with C4D's central principle of excellent customer service, this program will expand on our commitment to engage others, from like-minded organizations who share our desire to uplift and serve, to families and individuals who seek to actively participate in their own community development.

 

C4D CARES featured

Along with immersing our students in the best academic environment, it is Change 4 a Dollar’s goal to help them develop into the best version of themselves. We wish to instill important life values, such as the spirit of giving and charity. We believe that it is through these lessons that we can truly appreciate all of the people and blessings that we have in our lives, such as family, food, clothing, and an education.

 

On February 15, 2016, we held a Founder’s Initiative event, as part of our series of community service projects specially designed to impact the communities that we serve. For the month of February, our theme of C4D Cares helped bring awareness to homelessness and working to improve the lives of those less fortunate. Our students discussed the topic of homelessness in their Afterschool Program groups, such as how we can do our best to assist our neighbors who may need an extra bit of help.

 

Also, we partnered with the Chosen 300, a local organization whose mission closely aligns with this month's theme of serving the homeless. We conducted a Donation Drive together with our partnering schools, and collected items for homeless adults and youth. With the kind donations from our community, we used these items to create Care Kits that we distributed to the members of Chosen 300's West Philadelphia location at 40th & Lancaster. Chosen 300 and its members welcomed us with open arms and shared a spectacular service highlighting the importance of gratitude, fortitude, and perseverance. After fellowship, our staff helped serve a delicious dinner to those in attendance. While the 53 men, women, and children in attendance were grateful for their Care Kits, our staff felt that we had received an even bigger gift from touching the lives of our neighbors.

 

February's Charitable Event

On February 16th, the school district had a day off for President's Day, but that didn't mean C4D didn't have plans. Our C4D Cares initiative welcomed donations of travel sized toiletries and winter accessories from our families in the program. We crafted 80 homeless care kits and brought them to a church based shelter called Chosen 300. They were more than happy to have us assist the homeless and needy in Philadelphia. During that winter storm, the homeless had more than a full belly that night. They had C4D Homeless Care kits with them!

 

April's Financial Literacy Awareness Event

April is Financial Literacy Awareness Month! Change 4a Dollar is hosting an event on April 23rd, to promote the importance of financial literacy in Philadelphia’s Clark Park! The event will start at 12 noon and go until 3pm. Our students in Change 4 a Dollar will be giving out "common cents" flyers with financial facts and economic statistics. There will also be a science fest held by the University of the Sciences, who we have partnered with, which the children can participate in during this time. Furthermore, during the month of April, every week we will post a financial literacy facts on our Facebook Page to help our families. Be sure to share these posts with all your friends! Our hash tags to trend will be #realitycheck #commoncents #duesanddonts #financialfriday

 

Parent & Student Testimonials

Dayonna Brodie:

 

Ashiya Williams: a 10 year old student at Universal Bluford School, is now an entrepreneur. Stemming from her love of makeup, she began her own lip balm and gloss company, called Lipz by Ahsiya. With the strong support of her mother, she creates all kinds of natural, flavorful concoctions of lip products – and by the looks of her website and Instagram, is having fun doing it! We love seeing young people turn a passion into a business. We're blown away at her creativity and commitment, and thank her for continuing to choose Change 4a Dollar!

 

Rashad Norwood:

 

Emani & Charles Bostic: