Group of youth stand with a volunteer and all are smiling

Empowering Youth

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Trifecta, Inc. Teams up with TAP

Each year TAP’s youth programs help dozens of youth to go to college and assist many more to find career paths and join the workforce. In the process, we also help them to develop as people. This past summer we teamed up with Trifecta, Inc., an exciting local organization that works with youth across the state. Trifecta brought youth empowerment programming to TAP’s students and had a lasting impact on the young people in our community.

TAP: What kind of work does Trifecta do in the community?

Natasha Saunders: We curate programming and special events with the intent to develop folks in our community. We are a minority, women-led, youth empowerment organization. Everything we do is with the intent of giving back to the community, whether that’s adopting a classroom or providing scholarships to folks that are going into college, or doing career readiness. We want to pour into our youth and be a bridge and a light in a way that we may not have felt was there when we were growing up in Roanoke.

TAP: What kinds of activities do you do with students, including the TAP students?

Natasha Saunders: We have a curriculum that covers everything from paint parties to vision parties, creating vision boards, doing affirmation activities, and design contests. We do elevator pitches, college readiness, and how to advocate yourself; we do a lot of things that are to holistically develop yourself as a person. We’ve done workshops on the history of Virginia with minority leaders. We’ve had a really fun time designing all these programs. We do design based on need, but we have about 20 workshops that are already ready… We’ve probably done 50 workshops throughout the state of Virginia in just the last nine months.

Students Learn Self-Presentation

TAP: Some of the students in our program at TAP are coming from very hard life circumstances. Can you recall any lightbulb moments? Did you see a change in the TAP youth or see something click for them?

Robyn Mitchell: We had some students who may have not wanted to participate or might have thought a project was not cool. But by the end of it, they had fully engaged and were learning the importance of being collaborative.

We let our students know that everywhere you go, you are a walking brand. How you present yourself in a situation—people will remember that. Even after the [sessions with TAP students] have ended, [we’ve run] into these students in the community at a football game and they come up and say, “How are you doing, Miss Robyn?” They’re not using the slang, they’re presenting themselves as they want to be seen, they’re giving respect and they want to be respected in return.

That was a big moment for me post-program, seeing how one nugget may have stuck with someone to show up and always be a walking brand for yourself… That is an indicator that something may have clicked with the student that we’ve shared with them.

Collaborating to Reach Youth

TAP: Is there anything you think people in the community should know about Trifecta or TAP?

Robyn Mitchell: The community should know these two organizations in their own respective rights are passionate about helping to develop our young people. Both organizations focus on collaboration and how we can work together to improve our communities. One thing we’ve been thinking a lot about lately is how these things we do in our community can break those generational cycles of poverty and how we can set our youth up for success later on; I believe both organizations focus on that goal.

To learn more about Trifecta Inc. or to inquire about a workshop or event, visit www.trifectainc.org or email trifectaorg@nullgmail.com.

 

Two AA female youth look at a computer in class

A Holistic Approach to Youth Development

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We know that exposure to violence makes young people more likely to become violent themselves. So, how can we disrupt that cycle? How do we encourage students down another path? 

As it turns out, meditation helps.

“We had a student from last year who said he would have killed someone if it wasn’t for this class,” said Antonio Stovall. He is the instructor for TAP’s African American Culture and Contemporary Issues class at William Fleming High School. The class builds identity, cultural awareness, and self-empowerment among Black students at Fleming. Meditation and mindfulness techniques play a big role in the class.   

“We are noticing a big difference in how students are interacting with their community, with their classmates,” says Antonio. “They feel more grounded, they have more self-value and self-respect.”

Nature Experiences

TAP pairs this foundation of mindfulness with other experiences that encourage violence-free, productive futures. For example, we get them out into nature.

The students in Antonio’s class and in all of our youth programs often come from households or neighborhoods where they see violence or may even be involved in it. “They deal with a lot of stress, depression, and hardship,” says Antonio. By taking them out of the city to experience nature, “they get an opportunity to detach from their home situation and get back in tune with themselves.”

Brighter Futures

Athletics can also provide a fruitful platform for reaching young people. Recognizing the importance of coaches in the lives of youth, we partner with the coaches in school athletic programs to deliver messages of non-violence and violence prevention.

Djuan Hankins, a longtime basketball coach in the Roanoke community who works with our youth programs, describes how TAP tries to propel students toward a brighter future. “I ask them what their plan is in life, what kind of working career they want, what kind of opportunities they want to be able to provide for themselves after high school,” he says.

Then, TAP helps them get there. College access has long been an important theme in TAP’s youth programs: we provide disadvantaged students with everything from SAT waivers to campus tour trips. Students have described this part of their journey as opening their eyes to college and all the steps on the path to get there.

Summer Programming

Keeping students occupied in the summer with productive pursuits is also an important element of TAP’s holistic strategy. This past summer we offered programming that included fun activities like skating and bowling, as well as daily mindfulness exercises and learning experiences including a STEM workshop from Virginia Tech. Another highlight was a series of four workshops taught by Trifecta, Inc., a youth empowerment organization. These workshops provided opportunities for artistic self-expression, including poetry and painting.

At the end of the summer, the students asked excitedly when TAP’s next activity would be. It’s no wonder that this fall, when classes started at William Fleming, we were overrun with students wanting to take the African American Culture and Contemporary Issues class.

“Now we’re seeing they’re more focused on the [teaching] and not on their phones. They want to learn, engage, and be successful,” says Djuan. “They are learning something that will carry a long ways in life.”

A collection of outcome data from TAPs programs

Annual Report 2020–2021

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“I don’t think I could have made it another year like I’d been making it the past 15 years.”

“[TAP] was a tremendous help, and the help has not ceased.”

 “I feel like I am getting my self-confidence back.”

These are the words of TAP clients featured in our most recent annual report. The report details how TAP has opened doors for families and individuals who are working hard to overcome obstacles in their own lives.

At the heart of our work is the goal to help people get out of and stay out of poverty. We offer more than 20 programs in the areas of education, employment, affordable housing, and creating safe and healthy environments for families. The annual report provides a glimpse into these programs and the life-changing results they help people in our community achieve.  

In a typical year, we serve around 5,000 people. Last year was different. Throughout the most uncertain days of the pandemic we kept our doors open, determined to continue serving the most vulnerable among us. When the year was over, we had served close to 9,000 people.

Please enjoy the inspiring stories of a few of the individuals we served among the thousands. Jane bravely sought support in the face of abuse. Kenneth received life-changing help for his dilapidated home. Ann found inner strength to complete her education.

While we celebrate their stories, we are also mindful that their victories didn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes all of us working together to support the work of community action. Thank you for your support.