WE’VE MADE IT TO THE FINAL 10 NOW LET’S GO ALL THE WAY!

Orlando, FL October 24, 2011 – It’s official Ms. Shanta Barton-Stubbs has been named one of the 10 finalists for the title L’Oreal Woman of Worth which comes with a $25,000 prize. NIYC really needs this prize but the only way that we are going to get it is with your help. We need for all of you to go to www.womanofworth.com and vote for Ms. Shanta Barton-Stubbs. Voting starts on November 7, 2011 and it ends on November 21, 2011. Don’t forget to tell all of your friends.

New Image Youth Center is located in the Parramore Community. It started 7 years ago with 8 students and now it has 50 students that participate in the after-school, summer camp, and pre college programs. Ms. Shanta Barton-Stubbs is the Founder/Director of NIYC. She started with all of her savings and the kitchen portion of her parents’ church. Now NIYC has 2 more buildings in addition to the kitchen that they started in. This prize money will go towards the operating expenses of NIYC. For the past 7 years we have kept our doors open with Shanta paying at least 25% of the bills for the Center from her own pocket.

In the course of these 7 years we have not lost any of our young men to gangs, violence, or the juvenile justice system, and none of young ladies have become pregnant. Shanta works for NIYC for more than 40 hours a week and she is not getting paid to do so. Now we have the opportunity to get some money into New Image that will help Ms. Shanta to continue to groom these children to be the leaders of tomorrow that they are meant to be. So here’s your chance to make a difference in the life of a child. For those of you who have always wanted to donate to a good cause but never had the extra money this won’t cost you anything. All you have to do is vote! It’s that simple so go to www.womanofworth.com and vote November 7 – 21, 2011. DON’T FORGET!!!!!!!!!! It’s $25,000 for a good cause.

Thanks to the support of Southwest Airlines who provided the DJ and Judy who was the backstage coordinator, Cyn by Cynthia Mehra for the clothes, Roquois of Roquois LLC for donating her coordinating services, and to Jessica and Vanessa of LiveLoveArt for helping to prepare the students.

Jessica and Vanessa began to come to New Image Youth Center over the summer to begin getting the children ready to hit the runway. The children were not only able to model clothes that were designed by Cynthia Mehra but they were also able to keep the clothes. Ms. Roquois took time away from her Fashion Event Production Company and Fashion Marketing Company to seek out decade appropriate styles for the children to model, teach the children how to walk, and to find a stage to be used in the show.

As the outfits were situated, Jessica, Vanessa and their team began working on hair and make up for the girls. DJ Tyler began preparing the music and Ms. Judy began to orchestrate all of the activity going on backstage. Then it was “Lights, Camera. Action…” as NIYC took the stage at Urban ReThink. The show was a phenomenal success. The NIYC models dazzled and amazed their audience in the first of many Fashion Extravaganza’s. None of this would have been possible without the help of our sponsors and our very own Ms. Shanta Barton-Stubbs. They all took the time to invest into this event and we cannot wait to do our next show.Click to view slideshow.

We are proud to announce that our student Robertson Bassy has received a $1,500 scholarship from the Delta Sigma Theta Orlando Alumni chapter through their EMBODI program.  The EMBODI (Empowering Males to Build Opportunities for Developing Independence) program is designed to refocus the efforts of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., with the support and action of other major organizations, on the plight of African-American males. Robertson is the first male to recieve this award and we are so proud of his accomplishments. We have had a great partnership with the Delta’s and their EMBODI program and look forward to our future with them. Thank you so much Delta Sigma Theta for supporting Robert as he continues his education at Morehouse College in the fall!

Our open house was indeed a great occasion and it was an honor to have Florida Senator Gary Siplin attend our open house in honor of our celebration. New Image Youth Center also received the tremendous honor of having Mayor Buddy Dyer proclaim May 18, 2011 as New Image Youth Center Day. It is great to have the support of such wonderful local leaders and we are excited to continue our journey together. A special thank you to Fendson Dorvilus of ZoetryPoetry  for your beautiful words as part of our program. We would also like to say a special thank you to all of the efforts of Northrop Grumman, Cotter Ryan Construction, and our Golden Girls to making this possible.

Thank you so much to everyone that has believed in our mission and supported our efforts!

New Image Youth Center is very grateful for all of the hard work that Northrop Grumman,  Cotter Ryan, Hunt Construction, and Tri City Electric have out in to make this possible. The kids are very excited to learn more and achieve more in their new facility all thanks to you!

The basic structure of yoga is to implement balance within the individual in an environment where there are multiple imbalances Ms. Bourassa and New Image Youth Center are introducing another tool to help these young individuals find balance within themselves, thus bringing balance into their community as they grow.  These yoga lessons will also serve as a way for the children to relax and relieve stress that they incur from their daily environment.

About Naomi Bourassa

Naomi has been a licensed massage therapist for the last six years and has recently pursued her interest in yoga after she took a two-week intensive yoga training in June 2009, which also included the study of emotional health. In May 2010 she attended a weekend workshop in Miami that specifically targets teaching yoga to at-risk youth and how to approach the effects of different types of trauma.

Four months have now passed and New Image Youth Center’s garden has produced an abundance of fresh vegetables. Ten bushels of collard greens, six tomatoes, three green bell peppers, and one head cauliflower were cultivated and picked by the children and staff. This week the children were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, learning the importance of hard work and healthy eating.

Photo by Fernando Medina

 It was a joyous Friday for the children and families of New Image Youth Center thanks to the annual holiday party at Amway Center thrown by the Orlando Magic. This year the Orlando chose New Image Youth Center as the honored guests of their holiday party, complete with the Magic Express train, video games, snow, DJ, and Santa.

Fifty five children and families were bused from New Image Youth Center, greeted by Santa stilt walking fairies and being treated to a scrumptious Christmas dinner. With dinner complete the real fun began as the children ventured off to the various activities, jumping around in the Magic bounce house and posing for keepsake flip books. Soon the families were joined by some very special guests, Stan Van Gundy and the players of the Orlando Magic. Snow fights ensued and the craziness began as each of the players interacted with the children and their families.

The children were saddened though when one by one the players left the celebration. The Magic dancers had something else in store for them though, leading them into the practice court for present time. Once each child received their present, they received an even bigger surprise—Stuff and the Magic players riding out onto the practice court on a bike or scooter for each child.

With Stuff leading the way, the children and parents of New Image Youth Center left back to the center with more than just gifts and bikes, making memories that would last them a lifetime.

I would first like to say thank you for supporting New Image Youth Center so much this year. New Image Youth Center has made tremendous progress this year and it couldn’t have been done without all of you. This year New Image Youth Center celebrated its 6^th anniversary, six years that New Image has been in existence as a safe haven and support system for at-risk youth in the Parramore community of downtown Orlando. With the sixth year came a new building as well! With the help of Northrop Grumman, Cotter Ryan Construction, and Hunt Construction Group he building next door has been transformed into an all new colorful and technologically savvy learning area for the younger children. This has been an enormous milestone as our roster gets fuller and fuller every year and the children cannot wait to move into the new area.  

There have been other great new additions as we began offering martial arts, yoga, and Boy Scouts for the first time. The children were able to dive right into these new experiences and have made so much progress. The boys were able to go camping for the first time with Boy Scouts this summer and have continued to take part in fundraisers and earning their badges. In an effort to go green and teach our children the merits of eating healthy, New Image Youth Center is the proud new owner of a community garden. The children have enjoyed taking care of the garden and learning of all the ways they can use the garden to be healthy and help make the Earth healthier.

With the aid of a new van, we were able to go on field trips all summer long. The children were exposed to the arts at City Arts Factory, learned about African American history at Wells Built Museum and Hannibal Square Heritage Center, and learned about nature through field trips with the Sierra Club Inner City Outings. This year didn’t go without fun of course, and boy did we have a blast this year! The kids also enjoyed going on trips to Daytona Beach, bowling, skating, and trips to the movies to see the great summer films coming out. The treat of the summer was undoubtedly a visit from Katharine McPhee, who paid us a visit with Feeding America to take part in the food program as well as performing for us. She even wrote a song for us and New Image now has its own anthem! This summer’s camp program was filled with plenty of memories and we all enjoyed it very much with the help of our wonderful interns and supporters helping to make it go smoothly.

  This year has been an amazing year for New Image Youth Center, to say the least, and we hope for even more progress for years to come. We greatly appreciate each and every contribution made to our efforts to “To help inner city youth to obtain a “New Image” through positive and motivating learning experiences and to build character through the promotion of education and fun. We hope you think of us as the year draws to an end and we look towards the future to continue making a difference in the Parramore community. Please feel free to keep up with everything we do by following us on Twitter @NewImageYouth, “liking” our page on Facebook, or watching our videos on YouTube under our New Image youth Center YouTube channel. Thank you once again for all of you support and any support you continue to provide in the future.

 Sincerely,

Shanta Barton-Stubbs

 Shanta Barton-Stubbs, Director