Findlay House Global Enters Year Two of Re-Powering Kent County Youth with Beyond Your Mental Program
On January 2, 2024, Findlay House Global (FHG) received notice that it would be awarded a grant by the Kent County (Maryland) Local Management Board (KCLMB) to pilot “Beyond Your Mental (BYM)”—a demand driven and student-designed mentorship program focused on re-powering youth through mental health awareness and leadership.
Launched from FHG’s Y.O.U.R. Kent County youth leadership academy, BYM was the culminating community project created by 35 Kent County High School students. “Beyond Your Mental” is a double entendre emphasizing both awareness of mental health (“Be on” your mental) and the power to move beyond limiting mindsets.
The pilot program will pair 10th - 12th grade mentors with 8th and 9th grade mentees, equipping younger students with the tools they need to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally in high school.
As FHG enters its second year in Kent County, the team remains committed to re-powering youth and building a culture of engaged, civic youth leaders in Kent County.
City of Asheville Partners with Findlay House Global to Re-Power Historically Disadvantaged Communities
On October 6, 2023 — Findlay House Global (FHG) received notice that it would be awarded a contract by the City of Asheville to implement FHG’s O.U.R. Development™ Program — an intergenerational leadership academy program designed to strengthen grassroots leadership and civic engagement.
In collaboration with the City’s Communications and Public Engagement (CAPE) Department, FHG will tailor the O.U.R. Development™ Program curriculum through a co-design process so that it reflects the lived experiences and felt needs of Asheville’s diverse communities.
Additionally, FHG will work with the CAPE coordinate and facilitate the intergenerational academy across two cohorts. Participants will gain the skills and confidence to engage in government decision-making processes that directly impact their neighborhoods.
The O.U.R. Asheville (AVL) Leadership Academy will break down barriers to communication and public participation, ensuring historically disadvantaged voices are not only heard but valued in local governance. By integrating social and behavior change strategies, FHG will help build a sustainable pipeline of community leaders dedicated to driving equitable change.
This initiative marks a bold step in Asheville’s commitment to re-powering its communities through people-centered leadership and inclusive civic engagement.
FHG's 2022 Re-Power Report
Thanks to our team, community collaborators, clients, and other supporters, 2022 was a great year!
Overview
In 2022, we decided to go deep rather than wide, we rooted ourselves within Kent County High School for the 2022-2023 school year, and collaborated with 35 students in the Kent County, Maryland community.
We conducted 15 surveys and received 250+ community responses!
We launched our Y.O.U.R. Development program and hosted another Art Works™ summit in collaboration with the Kent Local Management the in the city of Chestertown, Maryland.
FHG received the gold standard WBENC certification and became MBE certified!
Our Principal Consultant, Cara-Marie, received her Master of Arts in Communication for Development from Malmö University (Sweden) and published her Master’s Thesis “Towards Decolonisation: Afro-Caribbean Philosophy and Development in Jamaica”
FHG was one of 6 finalists invited to submit a proposal for Jamaica’s Nation Brand Project.
Listening + Amplifying by Reporting Out
We used several methods to LISTEN and capture youth voices, including using 15 surveys that garnered 264 responses.
We offered a platform for amplification of those voices by writing a final report that we shared not only with our funding partner, the Kent County Local Management Board, but also with other community stakeholders including students, and parents.
ART WORKS™ KENT COUNTY
We brought our ART WORKS™ program to Kent County where it served as the culminating event for our time of collaboration with Kent County Youth.
Percentages based on results of live polling during the summit.
What We Heard
About the Re-Power Report.
The Re-Power Report is an FHG annual report that gives a brief overview of our activities related to our work of collaborating with communities and assisting greater numbers of underserved peoples in responding and leading the discussion on development at different levels, but especially locally.
Why publish an annual report?
At Findlay House Global, we advocate for accountability at all levels, and that cannot happen without transparency. But our advocacy goes beyond simply talking the talk because we are committed to leading by example.
We have decided to publish our version of an annual report for the same reasons a nonprofit organization would:
To build trust
To shed light on our vision:
To inspire others to join our mission:
and to thank all our supporters (collaborators, clients, and cheerleaders!)
Why not call it an impact report?
At FHG, it’s about having the right perspective. We see our roles as helping to facilitate impact, but we do not pretend we can presume impact upon the people with whom we work. Instead, we choose to center their experiences, stories, and voices.
In the community development space, a lot of organizations are eager to demonstrate their impact in the form of evaluating predefined goals against quantifiable outcomes. While predefined goals can make many things easier in terms of monitoring, there are limitations, and even downsides, to relying on these goals to assess true impact.
Our work with communities has taught us that:
collaboration is an open-ended process.
Entering any community with predefined goals negates any opportunity for the community to define success for themselves.
Predefined goals and preset targets ignore, or at best underestimate, the broader and more complex dynamics associated with collaboration, which include: productive synergies, intangible change processes, and reinforcing longer-term outcomes.