Project Legacy: A month in review
Today, we celebrate the end of May and the close of another fulfilling school year. At Project Legacy, this means celebrating our young people and the tremendous effort they have put forward this year. Whether they’re celebrating high school, college or eighth grade graduations, we recognize their hard work and couldn’t be prouder of these exciting milestones.
Read through a few key highlights that happened at Project Legacy this month:
Project Legacy Spring Celebration
We gathered together with volunteers, youth and community members to honor the hard work of our young people. It was a beautiful afternoon full of celebration!
"As I sat at this event listening to the college graduates sharing their stories and words of advice to the middle school graduates and other younger students, I was incredibly proud of them and so inspired by this exchange. Through their stories of where they have been and where they are now and their plans for the future, the older youth offered possibly one of the most important gifts to the younger students that is not taken for granted in this group: Hope." —Dr. Jane Goldman Rosenman, Pediatrician at Mayo Clinic, Project Legacy Board Member, Circle Facilitator
Congratulations to our graduates!
Mental Health Bill Update
While we had tremendous momentum this month, we were saddened and disappointed to learn that the Minnesota legislature did not support funding for Project Legacy. This was a disappointment to the many youth of color who rely on Project Legacy for access to mental health care, housing, and educational assistance, however, we continue to persevere, searching for different funding streams that allow us to continue serving our youth. Thank you to all who worked to secure the passage of this bill and advocated for us with your time and efforts. We appreciate your commitment to Project Legacy and our youth.
New Program Launches
In April, we launched our in-house mental health initiative, Project Legacy Heals, a program that offers counseling and mental health support to the young people in our program. Throughout the month of May, we continued to put the pieces together for this exciting new program, including welcoming two new therapists to the program. We look forward to the impact this program will continue to have!
A Generous Donation
This month, Project Legacy received a generous contribution from Mayo Clinic’s Community Contributions Committee. This award will be used to expand our adolescent and peer mentoring programs, in addition to building capacity within our mental health initiative, Project Legacy Heals. We are deeply grateful to Mayo Clinic for their ongoing commitment to Project Legacy!