BRAVE INITIATIVES
Jen KaminsBrave Initiatives is on a mission to empower young women to view themselves as purposeful, powerful agents of change in the world. As technology becomes a growing industry and a leading topic of discussion, Brave has developed a program that integrates social impact projects, design thinking strategy and web development through coding. Brave believes that all people have the ability to code, but many hold themselves back. To change this, Brave runs a 5-day BraveCamp that gets participants involved in the creative and enthralling process of developing technology using design-thinking tools for social impact.
BraveCamp begins with time for personal reflection and activities that spur self-love and self-discovery. Participants then immerse themselves in relevant community issues of which they feel passionate about and prototype tech-based solutions to those issues using the design process. Participants come away from the camp with fearlessness and self-efficacy towards computer science and their abilities to design solutions using technology that better their communities, and ultimately, the world. The goal of each camp is to challenge girls to step outside of their comfort zones to explore the greater purpose of technology, while guiding them to see themselves as the authors of their own lives. Through hands on learning, games, mentorship and leadership activities, each student will complete the program feeling empowered, supported and purposeful in a new way.
Co-Founder and Director of Business and Corporate Relations, Jen Kamins, previously worked at Motorola Mobility, A Google Company and Abbott Labs as a member of the HR teams. She spent 5 years working in Talent Acquisition as a part of the recruitment process, hiring top tier tech talent. After volunteering for two years with Citizen Schools, Jen grew deeply passionate about working with underserved communities in Chicago and raising young women to be future change makers.
Pivotal Impact
Candace WashingtonWhile working as a Learning and Development Professional, Candace Washington realized she wasn’t fully living out her dreams and career aspirations. Instead, she was settling. She was simply talking about what she wanted to be instead of taking action to become who she wanted to be.
Growing up in an underserved community on the west side of Chicago where education is often subpar and opportunity is bleak, Candace was the beneficiary of many personal and professional young adult development programs and organizations that had a pivotal impact in her life and altered her trajectory. As a result, from the age of 19, Candace’s passion has been to be a guide post and catalyst for the personal and professional development of young adults, just as others were for her. Candace passionately wanted to pay it forward in life, leadership and legacy through service to others. She wanted to serve the audience she cared about and related to the most and she wanted to do it in a bigger way. She wanted to reach far beyond what her daily 9 to 5 job provided.
In January 2016, Candace received a consulting request to develop several leadership development workshops for a large university program that targeted young adults. After delivering the first session, she felt alive and on fire and it was clear that they did as well. It was a very different feeling from what she received in her full-time role as a training professional. She felt like she wanted to bask in that moment forever. Following the project, other consulting opportunities came along, until finally Candace made the definitive decision to fully commit to creating the life she wanted … and Pivotal Impact (PI) was born
Candace launched PI eleven months ago and now has a team of three Learning and Development Consultants. PI is a personal leadership, professional growth, and talent development consulting company that empowers emerging leaders and young professionals with knowledge and skills to accelerate success and build legacy in work, life, and leadership.
Candace is the infectious, positive, can-do spirit behind PI. She loves to laugh and always has a big smile on her face. An avid bowler, book worm and leadership geek who enjoys family, traveling and meeting new people, Candace is focused on building lasting relationships and legacy in leadership and communication for herself and the audiences she serves. Words that inspire her? “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” ~Rabbi Hillel
I Am A Gentleman, Inc.
Jermaine Lawrence AndersonIn 2012, Jermaine Lawrence Anderson founded I Am A Gentleman, Inc. with the goal of developing and rebuilding young men from the inside out in minority communities throughout the United States. I Am A Gentleman, Inc. was born out of Jermaine’s passion to impart to others the lessons and values that shaped and molded his own life while growing up on the west side of Chicago. As a student at Ella Flagg Elementary School in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, Jermaine began learning about entrepreneurship from Brian Jenkins when Brian was just beginning to teach about it. Jermaine later became a successful entrepreneur and businessman.
The mission of I Am A Gentleman, Inc. is to engage, enrich and empower young men for successful careers, healthy lifestyles, marketable skills and well-balanced relationships.
I Am A Gentleman, Inc. sets out to accomplish its goal through personal development classes and enrichment workshops embracing etiquette and statesmanship for young adult and adult men. They provide guidance through mentoring, health and wellness workshops, career and advanced education leads, volunteer projects and various positive community initiatives throughout the year. They are committed to helping young men improve their personal & professional relationships and overall emotional, physical and spiritual health.
- The White Tablecloth Experience is an afternoon of motivation, demonstration and fine dining that teaches young men the basics of etiquette.
- Polka Dot Socks is a 10-session curriculum offered twice a year that teaches young men ages 14-21 life skills including the importance of having good self-esteem, what it means to have confidence, self-respect and the power of their image.
- Project Gentlemen helps clothe young men graduating high school and men re-entering the workforce.
Jermaine Lawrence Anderson is a true testament to the ideology introduced all those years ago at Ella Flagg Young Elementary. From one of the first students under the tutelage of Brian Jenkins, Jermaine has developed into a successful businessman recognized by Real Times Media Group as Someone You Should Know (Who’s Who in Black Chicago, March 2012) and was recently appointed to NBC5 Chicago’s Community Action Board.
Chicago Fire Furniture
Julius DorseyWalk into Darrel and Reesheda Washington’s new L!VE Café for an exceptional cup of coffee and you just might find yourself engaged in inspiring conversation with like-minded community members seated around a rather exceptional piece of art—a beautiful, torched wood table by artist Julius Dorsey of Chicago Fire Furniture.
With family roots in Detroit and an art background in drawing, painting and photography, Julius finds a great deal of enjoyment in creating life from things most other people consider junk. In fact, it was a summer break trip to visit his grandmother in Detroit, while pursuing his education at the Art Institute of Chicago, that Julius was first inspired with the notion that where there is decay, there is growth. He decided then and there that one day he would use that in his art—the idea of building something to stand for unconventional beauty and the dichotomy between growth and destruction.
Four years later, the idea resurrected through an unexpected medium. Fire. Julius decided he would attempt to create something new through a means of destruction ... and Chicago Fire Furniture was born.
Although his inspiration came from Detroit, Julius says his sense of urgency came from his household. “I started this business after being fired from a sales job in my late 20’s. In a month, I went from being on pace to earn 6 figures in my ‘dream’ job, to having no income, with bills on the way and a wife 8-months pregnant with our 4th child. Oh, and I was flat broke and we had no health insurance.”
Rather than taking another job, Julius decided to take a leap of faith and start something on his own. For the next year, he transformed his condo into a woodshop. “I was literally refinishing furniture in my kitchen nook and photographing in my dining room,” Julius says. “Customers would show up to see my ‘showroom’ and encounter my kids running all over the place. I carried a few hundred pieces of furniture up 2 flights of stairs for over a year before getting my own woodshop.”
Today, Julius has a woodshop in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. His one-of-a-kind furniture pieces are physically torched outdoors--usually at night--and stored in the same building that houses the workshop.
Julius draws his inspiration from his surroundings and from the streets. “I’ve always been drawn to the unmanicured corners of the city where the raw truth is out in the open. I like to view life before and after the cameras start rolling with all the imperfections in plain view.”
His advice to others? “Never let fear tell you what you can or can’t do. Don’t be afraid to back yourself into a corner where failure isn’t an option and fight your way out. You’ll make and become something amazing in the process.” Which is just one reason why his table is a perfect fit in L!VE Café.
TalentFlood
Winner, Moxe Business Plan CompetitionChicago, IL: TalentFlood, a new smart hiring software that uses a sophisticated algorithm to match employers to job seekers, was announced as the first place winner of the Moxe Pitch Event at the Moxe Launch Party in Chicago, IL, hosted by Entrenuity. TalentFlood’s prototype and business plan for their newly developed software was ranked by a panel of judges according to excellence in concept, presentation, professionalism and marketability.
As a Chicago local, Angela Jackson presented at the pitch event and accepted the award at the launch party afterwards. “We’ve been working on this idea for a long time,” Angela explained. “Having sat through the intensity of investor pitches in the past and their subsequent grilling questions, I felt confident that our plan covered most of the bases. But, honestly, it was just fun to talk about it with people who have never heard of the concept or idea before! It’s revolutionary—and that makes me excited to share.”
The team of founders met 6 years ago in South Carolina and began developing the idea soon afterwards. Though life took them to various states throughout the years, they stuck together with TalentFlood because they knew it could change the industry. Whenever they talk with employers, investors or pitch event judges, they tell the story of the pain in the hiring industry. The process is long, there are too many resume results, it involves wasting much time and money, and often the candidate may be the wrong hire when all is said and done. If there’s a better way—one that looks at the company and the job seeker in a more holistic way and matches them based on the combined results—then TalentFlood wants to be that way.
What’s next for TalentFlood?
- Finish developing the working prototype—TalentFlood needs to gain capital to put the finishing touches on the first phase of the product, so they can start running matches and generating revenue.
- Raise venture capital for full product development—TalentFlood will develop the full product in the 2nd phase, which will allow for better interfacing, faster matches, and more industries.
About TalentFlood: TalentFlood’s product promise is that Now Employers Can Search Smart. The web-based software assures employers that interviewees are a good fitfor the position, even before they meet the candidate. TalentFlood is not a traditional Applicant Tracking System or resume screener—it’s more. TalentFlood assesses the candidate's temperament, experience, skills and education in order to match the candidate to the right role and company culture.Talent, as well, doesn’t have to be concerned about getting matched to jobs where employers have hired out of desperation. TalentFlood wants to ensure that the culture is an excellent fit for both parties.
One Last Prayer, The Movie
Duncan Legacy Fund RecipientCongratulations to Duncan Loan Fund Recipient OLPFILM, LLP on the post-production phase of One Last Prayer. Written and directed by Myron Davis, One Last Prayer is a 90-minute feature film starring Broadway actor and musician Niles Rivers, about a hot-tempered father with a sordid past who learns that his daughter has a rare illness. Without resources to pay for treatment, he finds himself faced with a choice—return to life in the streets or continue on a path of faith. Davis’ vision is to “use the arts as a vehicle to reach the hopeless and give them Hope.” Davis and his team, Cinematographer, Jim Zunt, and Producer, Shay Hawkins, received Seed Capital from the Duncan Legacy Fund to help with post-production costs and to begin marketing to film festivals and distributors nationwide. The One Last Prayer Soundtrack, principally written and produced by Davis, a successful national recording artist, will be promoted along with the film and sold on iTunes, the movie website and at screenings.