Taylor Family Foundation For Kids graduation ceremony to be held today at Jordan High School in Long Beach at noon
By Gabrielle Pantera
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 2/13/2010 – “I want this to be a special ceremony for these kids because they have really made a major change,” says Taylor Family Foundation For Kids’ Life Management Skills program president and founder Le’Chein Taylor.
Two days a week over the last three months 22 at-risk teenagers have been a part of Taylor’s after-school mentoring program. The Taylor family foundation has works in conjunction with Soledad Enrichment Action (S.E.A.) Charter Schools in north and south Long Beach.
The Taylor Family Foundation For Kids’ Life Management Skills program is a mentor program to help change the lives of at-risk youths between 10 and 18 years of age. “Our impact sessions are very effective in saving lives,” says Taylor. “Young adults have challenges. There are some who can’t be in the same classroom because fights would break out. We want those kids. We let them experience love, care, and we give them hope.”
“We bring individuals from the workforce into the classrooms and have open dialogue,” says Taylor. “Most of these kids don’t get to see police officers, attorneys or judges, until they’re in trouble.” The Long Beach Police Department and the Long Beach Fire Department will receive recognition at the ceremony for their participation in the program.
“The participants realize how serious the choices they make can affect their lives, both in the present and in the future,” says Taylor. Students get hands-on training from mentors who overcame troubled pasts, people turned their lives around and are paying it forward so others won’t go down the wrong path. Two of the mentors lost their sight due to gang violence. They’re helping others see the light and not get involved in gangs or violence.
Of the graduating class, ten students are chosen to go on a five to seven day trip to St. Louis, Missouri. There they’ll tour Lincoln University, sit in the front row to watch a professional race car driver race, and go to a ten-acre ranch to ride horses and go fishing.
Le’Chein Taylor says he was inspired by his brother Darren “Bo” Taylor, the founder of Unity One, a program that counseled 3,000 inmates at the Los Angeles County Jail and helped gang members turn away from violence. Bo died of cancer in 2008. Taylor recently launched The Bo Taylor Foundation to support cancer research, education and services for cancer patients, especially for those who live in inner cities.
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