I met the most amazing nonprofit leader recently. Her name is Jody Rhodes and she is the Program Director for Neu-Life Community Resource Center on 20th and North. What really impressed me about her is her very natural ability to engage girls—in a co-ed environment she gives them space and attention and responds to their needs instead of dragging them into programs she dreamed up. Her girls, teens really, are taking responsibility and working hard to improve their neighborhood including working with local elected officials. After participating in an urban bicycling program last summer, they were bound and determined to make it a safer activity in their neighborhood. And they successfully got their local elected officials and the city behind them and now have bike lanes. They also had a cross walk installed in a very dangerous intersection.
Neu-Life's budget is small, less than $1 million per year, but they serve 800 kids at modest space in the basement of a church building and two school sites. Check out their lively facebook page. Clearly the young people are engaged at Neu-Life.
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