Jahi A.N.T. Homes

What is your organizations’ mission?
Jahi A. N. T. Homes is a public benefit, nonprofit organization with a mission to provide comprehensive resources, access to supportive services, youth services and housing to orphans and foster youth who have aged out of the system in Los Angeles.  
 
 
What does Jahi A. N. T. Homes mean?
Jahi means dignity. It comes from an African language and I chose that name as the middle name of my third son, Joshua Jahi.   A-N-T is an acronym that stands for All National Treasures, which I believe all the children of the nations are… they are all national treasures.
 
"Communities working together to preserve all national treasures… our children."
 
I like ANT as a symbol.     The ANT is significant to represent the heart of mission because of the nature of the ants to work together as they do so consistently, methodically and effectively.   We take action to lead communities to work in this way to solve the needs of youth who age out of the placement.  More than ever these young people need to be connected to caring individuals and organizations to support them as they continue higher educational pursuits.
 
 What does your organization do?
Through the Still I Rise program we invite youth into a mentoring relationship with our creative team that will give youth writing instruction, artistic development as writers, singers, musicians, live performance opportunities.
 
Presently, we continue to collaborate with other organizations and to support the work of the established entities by being advocates for this population in Los Angeles. Our research has helped us to identify who the formidable advocates are in the city:  like, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the United Friends of Children and Untied Way of Los Angeles.  We offer a theater arts program called Still I Rise that will gives youth a therapeutic milieu to express themselves and advocates for their support.   Further we support youth by offering them Life Skills Workshops, Community Forums to help communities be the support system that they need bringing in mentors to encourage and interact in fun settings.  Young people appreciate the opportunity to let them tell their stories by offering Artistic Presentations of performing and visual arts created with professional direction.   Mentors enjoy being involved with youth during the rehearsals of their presentations because iit gives both the youth and mentors chances to interact with one another in a fun create project that is life changing for everyone.
 
A therapeutic milieu is a structured group setting in which the existence of the group is a key force in the outcome of treatment.
 
Your support will help us to reach these goals:
 
    Develop a revenue source from theater productions that sustains the continuation of the productions
    Tour the Still I Rise productions throughout Los Angeles venues
    Advocate on behalf of the homeless youth in crisis and educate communities how to help to solve
    Develop interactive website so that the stories of foster youth are empowered, allowing them to uplift their own 
    peers, both locally and nationally, even internationally
 
Our objective:
 
    Through performing, literary and visual arts education in our youth theater education youth coming out of foster   
    placement will be nurtured into a healthier perception of them selves and how much they are needed; that
    they are important to society
    Create a voice of hope, person to person, to overcom and advocate in all communities
    Telling the stories in theater will have long lasting and far reaching impacting for bridging understanding for those
    in foster care - givers and recipients
    Healing and strengthening youth and society from stigmas and misunderstanding
    Caring leaders are invited to speak, teach, assure, educate and share; tell their individual stories to enhance the     experience of young people; motivate them by sharing their own stories as a model of powerful story telling is
 
Sign up today   

    We need communities of caring people from various walks to step up to provide for foster youth through the leadership of our program, Still I Rise (SIR) program.  
 
 
Jeanette Hawes, Executive Director