Who WE ARE
MY Foundation: Street Smarts to Great Starts Corp., is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that was founded in May 2017, by two African American women Jvonne Foster and Dr. Shenika Jackson. Both women were born and raised in the Englewood Community of Chicago, graduating in the top ten percent of their class from Tilden Community Career Academy in Chicago’s Canaryville community in 1996.
Through Ms. Foster and Dr. Jackson’s educational and occupational lens for today’s generation of high school students, the organization was established to provide teenagers the “option” to attend college or to prepare for a career in the construction trades, to someday serve the communities they live in. The first project: My College Going Self, began as a “pilot” program in May 2017, in the Englewood Community at Kelly Branch Library. Since then, MY Foundation: Street Smarts to Great Starts Corp., has continued to evolve, bringing in the next program: Rehab 360 in March 2018.
Our Approach
We Facilitate Safe Learning Spaces
MY Foundation: Street Smarts to Great Starts Corp., serves minority high school teens ages 14 to 18 years old from communities in Chicago Illinois, to include Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Roseland, Bronzeville, Woodlawn, and Evergreen Park
Statistics have shown that African American male high school students have a higher drop-out rate and a high school graduation rate of just 37%, compared to other ethnic groups that graduate from high school. In addition, 50 Chicago Public Schools were closed in 2013, mostly in poverty-stricken communities on the south, southwest, and west sides of Chicago, with the remaining schools not providing the skills and training needed to enter the construction field.
01.
— Our Mission
To educate, train, and employ high school teens ages 14 to 18, with life skills to achieve the success needed to become self-sufficient.