Today we’d like to introduce you to LaTasha Thomas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us LaTasha. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
God placed it on my heart to start a Girl’s Mentoring Program 9 years ago. I tried to avoid doing it for several years, but God continued to reveal to me why the program was needed. So finally I said “Ok, I’ll host a 1 day workshop or Girl’s Empowerment Conference and that should be good enough”. Well that was the incorrect way of thinking, because the planning of both events never worked out as planned. So I figured I’ll go another route and find a Girl’s Club to join and have my on chapter. I shared the vision that God gave me with the CEO of a particular Girl’s Club and she was excited about me joining, and said with that type of vision my Club would impact several young ladies lives. Needless to say once I submitted my Club application and paid my fees, she changed the policy which would prevent me from operating my program as God gave me the vision to. Once again, that didn’t work out to good either. At this point, I was frustrated and discouraged, so I went to my husband to vent. He informed me that I was disobeying God by not starting my own Program. God told me to start a program, not to piggy back off of someone else program. He told me to go pray about a name and further instructions from God and go from there. I followed his instructions. To make a long story short, I went the next morning to the court house to purchase my Assume Name of “Pretty Blessed Girls Mentoring Program”. The blessings begin to flow at the court house. I obtain a participant and a volunteer. I went to share the great news with my husband. He was very excited that I finally answered the call from God. Before I could worry about where supplies and other resources were going to come from, God sent people to donate all types of program supplies, along with volunteers. Every year gets better and better. June 1, 2018 will make 5 years of PBG empowering young ladies across the DFW area.
God has been so good to my program, that I’ve started mentoring other young ladies to start or enhance their girl’s program. Girls need someone to talk to outside of family and friends from time to time. At PBG, we’ve created an atmosphere of “NO JUDGEMENT ZONE”, and support our mentees outside of program, so we’ve had a successful. Completion rate.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road haven’t always been easy for us. Due to lack of funding, we’ve had to scale down some activities in previous years.
Also, volunteer retention at the beginning was a struggle. People saw the young ladies in their matching shirts, smiles on their faces, us going on field trips and working in the community, and thought it was a piece of cake to mentor young ladies. When they became a volunteer and saw that you had to sacrifice some things and time, do a lot of fasting and praying for our girls due to their different situations, they were no longer interested in volunteering. They didn’t realize the process of gaining those smiles and building relationships with our girls was so critical. But God!!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Pretty Blessed Girls is a program of Heavenly Touched Community Center CC, a nonprofit, 501(c) 3, charitable organization that provide educational, cultural, mentoring, and recreational opportunities for at risk families. The purpose of Pretty Blessed Girls Mentoring Program is to empower girls to feel pretty and blessed without compromising with society, through building their self-esteem, teaching them independence, and how to be effective leaders in their community. Our mission is to bring girls together from all walks of life to create a strong sisterhood that will empower, motivate, and uplift girls from all over the world.
We meet with our PBGS every 2nd and 4th Saturday for 4 hours. Our structured sessions included, but not limited to Keeping It Real Girl Talk” PBG Activity, and PBG LIVE. During KIRGT, the girls learn different life skills, personal development, and have open discussions on varies topics. PBG Activity is filled with arts and crafts, cooking experiences, sewing, knitting, and games. PBG LIVE is where the girls learn a variety of dances (Christian Hip hop, Mime, Praise Dance and STEP), theatre arts and public speaking. Outside of our meeting days we conduct Girl’s Empower Conference Calls. Girls from around the world are invited to join our PBGS and Empowerment Squad on the calls. Our PBGS and Empowerment Squad also serve faithfully out in the community helping others. Our PBGS learn something different from every Community Involvement Project.
We are different from other programs because we are family oriented, have a NO JUDGEMENT ZONE, and we don’t try to create them to be robots. We help to groom the girls to be confident, respectful, and successful in young ladies. We take our PBGS to Arkansas to a Girl’s Empowerment Conference to help expose them to things outside of their community. We host quarterly Parent/PBG workshops, activities and outings to help strengthen our families bonding.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, I feel that the DFW would be a great place to have Girl’s Mentoring Programs. They are definitely needed all over the world.
Pricing:
- Annual Program Registration Fee: $50
- Monthly program fee: $25 (Sibling discounts are available)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.prettyblessedgirls.org
- Phone: 682-351-9975
- Email: pbgrock79@gmail.com
- Instagram: PrettyBlessedGirls2013
- Facebook: @Pretty Blessed Girls Mentoring Program
Image Credit:
Edmond Breadux
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