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African-American advocate for teens receives $120,000 special leadership award for creatively engaging youth in post Hurricane Katrina environment
Boston, Mass. – Schools closed, community centers shut down and youth programs were cancelled after Katrina hit. Would that lead New Orleans resident Kim Dilosa to turn her attention away from teens? As If! Dilosa is founder and executive director of YOUTHanasia Foundation, a teen enrichment, health promotion, education, and leadership development organization. She devotes her life to improving the lives of poor, mostly minority teenagers. Not even the nation’s worst natural disaster could stop her from focusing on her mission.
Because of Dilosa’s works as a lifeline and an inspiration to teens she is being awarded a special Gulf Coast Community health Leadership Award by the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program (CHLP).
“While everyone in Greater New Orleans bickered over levees, political leadership, and FEMA, Ms. Kim wanted to know who was minding the kids,” said Joe Denny, Assistant Director of Jefferson Parish Community Justice Agency, one of Dilosa’s funders.
Dilosa foresaw the negative impact that the hurricane could have on low-income teens already at risk for drug and alcohol abuse or other problems, so she set out to prevent the kids from falling through the cracks. Dilosa’s concern for teen boredom in the aftermath of Katrina led her to create TEENZMatter Productions, a company that keeps teens excited and involved by enabling them to audition, produce and participate in citywide entertainment shows. She organized a talent show that involved 2,000 teens and created a frenzy. Grateful adults came up to her and asked, “What would these teenagers be doing on a Saturday night if not for TEENZMatter?” Perhaps the best testimony comes from the teens themselves. One 15 year-old who has competed in the talent shows says, “I know I’m a better person because of Ms. Kim.”
An architect by profession, Dilosa taught herself all about the non-profit world. She figured out how to get the resources that she needed for the kids after the storm by contacting and observing other organizations. She initiated The Greater New Orleans Youth Restoration Project, a general enrichment program for teens, which gained the support of Mayor Nagin, and other city officials. She instituted The Citywide High School Task Force, a leadership development program that provides conflict resolution instruction, life skills education, and community sensitivity training to teens. Some of those students now know how to conduct a press conference and run a board meeting.
Personally, Dilosa and her husband help keep kids off the streets by making themselves available to drive them home or pick them up late at night, by checking up on them in school, and by opening up their own home as a safe haven and a place to eat at least once a week during the school year.
Dilosa and the four others winners will be honored at CHLP’s annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on Thursday, October 12. In addition to Dilosa, the recipients are Vien Nguyen, Pastor, MQVN Community Development Corporation; Elise Hough, Executive Director, United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Houston, Houston, Tex; Joe Dawsey, Executive Director, Coastal Family Health Center, Biloxi, Miss.; and Beverly Wright, Executive Director for Environmental Justice/Dillard University, New Orleans, La. Each winner will receive $105,000 to further the work of his or her program and a $15,000 personal award.
“The 2005 hurricanes brought into focus for all Americans the gaping holes in this country’s safety net,” said Catherine Dunham, Ed.D, CHLP’s Program Director. “It reinforced what we know to be true; that local leaders taking the initiative are really the first and best responders. They deserve this special award as recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the recovery effort.”
CHLP also awards $1.2 million each year to health leaders who have surmounted personal and other obstacles to help Americans gain access to health care and social services. Since 1992, the program has distributed 140 awards in 47 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. To learn more, visit www.communityhealthleaders.org.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
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