Family Tree-New Beginnings

Description

Family Tree's mission in its inception in 2000 was to provide emotional and financial support to underprivileged youth, who had been faced with the adversity of losing a parent. The loss of a parent is naturally a devastating experience, but being stripped of parental guidance and financial support in a child's adolescence has the ability to put them at a crippling disadvantage and hinder their development and success. For this reason, Family Tree focused on providing a series of scholarships to youth in grades K-12, who lost parents or guardians. These efforts were focused in the North Carolina region and fundraisers such as walks, bake sales, banquets, concerts and other events were held to get community members involved in supporting the organization's mission of assisting to further education.

Currently, Family Tree has continued to focus on scholarly development and community involvement, but the organization has developed a broader purpose of not only affecting the lives of individual families, but changing the landscape of entire impoverished communities. The home of the organization is now in Chicago, where minority communities battle the highest unemployment rates in the nation, the highest saturations of abandoned properties and vacant lots, and these neighborhoods are also stricken with food deserts. Our new Housing and Incubator initiative will address each of these issues, and turn these deficiencies into opportunity for minority young adults.