In 2009, the chapter launched an Umbrella Program - Project S.E.L.F.: Cultivating Leadership through Service by Building Self-Esteem, Enrichment and Life Skills for the Future. The program mission of this major accomplishment is to provide opportunities for students of African descent to enhance academic skills, develop self-expression, self-confidence and self-discipline through community based civic, social and cultural activities. The targeted population is ninth through twelfth grade students.  Activities are planned through the entire year integrating the foci of each facet while providing students with service-learning credits.  The program has included oral and visual presentation of career options, mentoring activities, the preparation and delivery of meals to senior, citizens, museum trips, art and health lectures, and making pillows for cardiac patients in local hospitals.  Through its partnership with other local agencies and organizations, the chapter has incorporated a plethora of activities into the umbrella program that focus on science, technology engineering and mathematics, while also including art as it relates to these individual fields.

 

As a result of the effective implementation of this program, the chapter has been recognized with an AT&T grant and won third place for Best Practices in the Umbrella Program category at the Western Area Conference in 2016. The award itself is not unusual; however, the demographic served in the umbrella program is unusual in relation to that serviced by other chapters.  Our program serves high school students many of whom are in foster care.  They have special needs having been identified as emotionally disturbed, with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or having a specific learning disability.  All have been victims of some type of abuse either sexual, physical, and/or emotional and some have been victims of human sex trafficking. This willingness to serve a population that is undeserved makes this chapter unique.