Today we’d like to introduce you to Durale Harper.
Durale, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
D&J Empowerment Group was started by myself and my partner Jeff. I was on a mission to bring hope to the lives of people who had fallen victim to their circumstances like I had did. So when I pitched the idea to Jeff, he told me he wanted to be a part of this journey with me. So now we strive to encourage, inspire, and empower people and communities around the globe. My whole mission of helping others came about almost 7 years ago now. I found myself sleeping in my car, taking showers at a local gym, and at the lowest point in my life. One day I was looking in the mirror of that gym and I said to myself, that this is not the life that God intended me to have, so I surrendered all of my problems, all of my doubt, and all of my pride to God that day. I haven’t looked back since. Since we started the company almost 2 years ago, we do a laptop giveaway every year to graduating seniors and soon to be high school seniors, we feed families for Thanksgiving, we do a bike giveaway for Christmas, and we get involved in communities any way we can. We speak at schools, here recently I spoke at a corporate meeting, and we are a part of any thing we can be to make a positive impact in this world. You see we understand, that life is bigger than us. We want people to understand that they are not alone in this world and that people out there are going to struggles as well. We just want to provide the tools they need to sustain a healthy and successful life. At the end of the day, I know that I can’t help everyone, but I will give my last breathe to help everyone that I can. My hope is that people can be blessed by my story and continue to fight for their dreams and goals, because they matter.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road to get to where we are today and where we are trying to go in the future. Like I previously said, almost 7 years ago I was sleeping in my car, I had lost everything. Even on the journey to getting to this point, things have been a struggle. You see everything starts off great, you see the vision, you are motivated to achieve it, but when everything doesn’t go the way that you planned, you lose that excitement for it. Success is never easy, if it was everyone would be successful. Recently we partnered with N Zone Sports to bring a noncompetitive youth sports league to North Texas and Southeast Oklahoma. Things are not going as we had expectations for, but we refuse to give up on it and we refuse to give up on our youth. We teamed up with N Zone, because we wanted to give kids something more tangible to see, hold on to, and be a part of. We already speak at schools, but what good does that do for that young boy or girl who doesn’t have a father in their life, to have me come in and encourage them, inspire them, and give them a little hope, just to walk back out of their life. I never want to be that type of person, so we found this concept and it was right in line with what we were trying to do, again it has not been an easy road, but we are fighting for a bigger purpose and we will not give up.
Please tell us about D&J Empowerment Group.
D&J Empowerment Group is a motivational, consultant company. We created this company to give hope to others. By Encouraging, Inspiring, and Empowering others with the necessary tools to help better themselves and the people around them. We do speaking engagements, community events (back to school drives, laptop giveaways, Thanksgiving Dinners, and bike giveaways), and one on one sessions with people who just need someone to walk with them. The biggest thing I am proud of is helping all the people we get to help. This past Christmas we set out to donate 10 bikes. After an anonymous donor, donated the first 10 our goal went to 25 and we ended up giving away 52 bikes to kids that just wasn’t going to have a Merry Christmas. My proudest moment of that moment, was every parent that submitted an entry for a bike, we were able to get them one. I will never take the credit for that, all credit goes to God. I didn’t know how we were going to get all those bikes, but I trusted God to come through for us and he did. The thing I believe that sets us apart, is our drive to genuinely help others. Are there a lot of people out there doing the same things we are, absolutely, but I have seen life at rock bottom and I don’t want people to ever get to that place. We do not have it all together and we definitely don’t know it all, but we are willing and want to walk life out with people. Our personal info is out there, because we are living through truth and we stand by what we say and what we believe in, we will walk this life out with you, because that’s what life is about, it’s about others.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory growing up was hanging out with my family. I remember that my mother and my 2 brothers and sister would always play games together. Whether it was board games or Nintendo or even card games, the memories I have with my family and the way my mother made sure she spent real quality time with her kids was priceless. I was raised by a single mother of 4, so those days, those moments that time was so precious, that now my wife and I try and do that with our kids today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.djempowerment.com
- Phone: 214-702-9326
- Email: duraleharper@djempowerment.com
- Instagram: @djempowerment
- Facebook: @djempowerment
- Twitter: @djempowerment
Image Credit:
Durale Harper
Jeff Marcel
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