Your Donations Transform Lives
Dear Project Legacy Supporters,
On Wednesday of this week, we gathered for our weekly Zoom Talking Circle. Joining us were youth from Denver, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Fargo.
We spent the majority of our time processing and reacting to the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. What I had been hearing from our youth is that they were exhausted, emotionally spent, relieved at the verdict but enraged at the recent death of Daunte Wright, and now, Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus.
As one of our college students said to me a few days later, “Karen, this is my life. I have no more tears to cry. I am so over this. I am so angry. Will this ever stop?”
Together with our youth, we sit with these questions.
Right now, many conversations are surrounding whether or not these shootings were justified. However, I’d like to point to something else that needs to be addressed around the deaths and lives of these two young people.
What brought Daunte and Ma’Khia in contact with law enforcement?
Perhaps that is part of the larger problem that needs to be addressed. Why did Daunte have an unpaid ticket? Why did the officer feel using a taser was warranted in this case? Would an officer use a taser on my white daughter in a similar stop? Why was Ma’Khia so out of control? What had brought her to this point in her life?
These are some of the things I question because I deal with similar situations, circumstances and fallout in my work every day with Project Legacy youth.
We currently have 33 first generation, BIPOC college students enrolled in Project Legacy. 25 of the 33 have parents who have been incarcerated. All are living below the poverty line. That same number have experienced homelessness.
Most of these young people, when they come to Project Legacy, are entangled in situations directly tied to the above situations.
These situations are often barriers to their academic success, financial stability, mental and physical health. No driver’s license, no health insurance, advanced dental decay, unaddressed mental illness, substance use disorder, unpaid fines, warrants, hunger, and the list goes on and on.
At Project Legacy, we know these barriers can be resolved through intensive intervention, long-term support, and a compassionate landing spot that has become a second family to most of our youth.
This year, four of our youth were the first in their families to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Next year, there will be four more Bachelor’s degrees and a Master’s degree. Each of these young people received many of the supports below, that otherwise could have presented barriers to their dreams, their academic success and their opportunity to pursue a different story for their lives.
Tuition assistance
Rental assistance
Food
Meal plans at college
Root canals
Eye glasses
New mattresses and bed frames
Furniture for apartments
Car repairs
Gas money
Travel money to school
Letters of recommendation
Mentoring
Vacations
Adults who are there on the other end of the phone around the clock
An alternative peer group with those on the same path as them
Your donations and support are contributing directly to the lives of our youth. We believe they are the ones who are going to be doing the work of changing our world.
When you donate to Project Legacy, we aren’t asking that you donate to ideas not met by real action. You are donating so youth and young adults have the exact tools and means they need to complete their education, enter treatment, leave the commercial sex industry, learn a skill or trade, be safely housed, receive medical or mental health care.
Your donations transform lives in the most concrete way possible.
Tomorrow, we have four new young people meeting with us about enrolling in Project Legacy and starting college. Your donations ensure they will have the resources and support they need to graduate.
All-encompassing, life-transforming support, made possible because of you. Thank you.
Karen Edmonds
Executive Director