Our Vision for REACH Center

REACH Center

Our Vision is to create an environment at REACH Center that will draw in and engage the interest of people in need, specifically underprivileged men, women and at-risk youth. REACH Center will provide a safe place in the community where one can come and feel welcomed, receive the support, help, resources and services that he or she may need, as well as being offered an opportunity to participate in programs and activities that will expand their horizons, and open their eyes, which in turn will allow one to tap into hidden potential, discover talents and gifts that have been obscured due to the lack of resources and opportunities and (if not already started) begin the process of self-discovery on the journey to self-empowerment.

The vast majority of residents living in inner-city neighborhoods in Los Angeles are disadvantaged people struggling to get by, unable to consistently provide for their basic needs, living in hardship and disproportionately likely to be poor. Many of these people lack adequate resources, health care, affordable housing, etc. Most don't possess the necessary skills or have the knowledge/understanding needed to be productive members of society, such as life skills, financial literacy and so forth. There is an apparent economic disparity and obvious imbalance in comparison to suburban areas, nevertheless, people cannot use that as an excuse. REACH Center will teach that everyone must take responsibility for their own life and make their way. Negative thought patterns along with adverse socioeconomic, cultural, and behavioral factors are primarily the main cause for the repeated cycle of people in inner cities from one generation to the next not being able to elevate, remaining stuck in a box (the ghetto) not going anywhere, engaging in things that's detrimental to their health and well-being, making excuses on why they can't get ahead and blaming everyone but themselves for what's happening in their life. As a result we have a great number of people receiving government assistance, high crime rates and a large prison population and because the people aren't learning, aren't growing, aren't evolving we have people content with living off government assistance with no plans of getting off, high recidivism rates and career criminals. It's time for a shift! REACH Center is in the business of promoting hope, growth, healing and building the community.

We are especially focused on reaching the youth because that's who will be the next generation of leaders and trend setters. It's disheartening to see countless young people, generation after generation, throwing away their lives, walking in darkness and despair, moving about aimlessly through life without hope of a future because they've either been neglected, misinformed, or just not properly nurtured, taught and raised in a way that will enable them to be productive and thrive as young people.

At REACH Center we will educate, enlighten, speak life into the lives of these young people, raise their moral and intellectual consciousness, encourage them, guide them and prepare them to be productive members of society and successful young men and women.

We have developed a comprehensive and thorough plan which involves a systematic method for tackling the teen substance abuse problem, low standardized test scores and high dropout rates, children left home alone without an opportunity to participate in an afterschool program, gang involvement, high crime rates, rapid rise of sexually-transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and high rate of juvenile felony arrests resulting in a staggering number of youth confined in the juvenile justice department, which ultimately initiates a pattern of offences leading to career criminals who graduate from the state prison system to the federal level.

This plan of action we've developed will address the underlying needs of the youth in the inner cities of Los Angeles and surrounding areas, help put an end to this downward spiraling effect of today's destructive youth brought about by poverty, parental neglect, lack of resources, self-imposed hardship due to ignorance, being misinformed and misguided and ineffective and outdated systems, which is the major cause of the steady declining state of our community.

It's time for a change and not just talking about it, but actually doing something. It's going to take the community collectively as a whole to come together, get involved and actively participate, collaborate and establish synergistic and interactive cooperation to change the course of our youth and bring about lasting change.

We believe that the future of our nation lies in the hands of our youth, unfortunately many of today's youth aren't given a fair chance to succeed tomorrow and we're losing our youth to drug addiction, gang violence and the judicial system which all contributes to the greatly overcrowded California state prison system and federal system which cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. It is evident that more need to be done to save our youth and we believe we have the responsibility not only as a people created to serve, but as the greatest country in the world to do more and try to break this cycle of misinformed, destructive youth wasting and throwing their lives away leading to one lost generation after another.The time is now! If not now, when? We need to invest in our community.