This time last week was very special for me. I had the pleasure of speaking at an awesome event held by an organization called Project Glimmer. Their work helps to show young women, who need a little help to see it, that they are valued. See their mission statement and method here below . . .
Our mission is to inspire at-risk teenage girls and women to believe in themselves by letting
them know their community cares. We gift (new) beauty products and gently used/new jewelry,
accessories and wellness items during meaningful times of the year including Mother’s Day,
Graduation, Birthdays and the Holidays.
I participated in a panel discussion as part of Share Your Glimmer, A Day of Empowerment, a two day event series in San Francisco. Project glimmer explains that “The event brings confidence, inner beauty, and real life career skills via professional beauty & hair touch-ups, professional photo, resume/LinkedIn Professional Station and culminates with an inspiring panel discussion.” This particular event targets foster girls in high school or college and inspires them towards graduation. Without some intervention of encouragement or support, the numbers show this group off young people have disheartening odds. Project Glimmer quotes that only 50% of foster youth graduate from high school, 3% graduate from college and 1 in 5 will become homeless within a year of aging out of the foster care program. Through my platform, Follow My Feet, I speak often to young people, women, and people of color encouraging them to (1) visualize themselves in a passionate and purpose filled life and career and (2) continue on a path toward executing that vision in an actionable way.
It was such an honor for me to share some of my journey, lessons and motivation with the young women who attended. The panel brought together successful women from a variety of industries including marketing, music, beauty and technology for an intimate conversation discussing how we got our start, what our career paths have been, challenges we’ve had to overcome, and who inspired us to succeed.
You can see more about Protect Glimmer and the #ShareYourGlimmer event by watching this video about last year’s event:
Thank you to Project Glimmer for including me in this meaningful effort!
Visit their website to learn about how you might support them as they support others.