HANDY honors scholars who overcame adversity
The Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit HANDY recognized its class of 11 graduates and those who contributed to their success during the annual Scholars Breakfast which took place on Thursday, May 24, at the Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina.
The organization serves youth ages nine to 25. Some have been removed from their homes and placed in foster care, some are homeless or near homelessness. Some identify as LGBTQ. Others may have dealt with unemployment, dropped out of school or been involved in the justice system.
Taquitra Williams, 30, started at HANDY when she was 14 years old and had just started high school. “At that point, I was angry, I was depressed and I was anxious. I got into some trouble,” she said. “Kirk Brown came in, took me under his wing, and didn’t let me go.”
Last December, Williams received her culinary arts certificate from McFatter Technical College. She has also dealt with serious health issues recently, but she hasn’t been through it alone.
‘The whole family, the whole office came to see me and sit by my bedside while I was in the hospital suffering from heart failure, kidney failure, liver failure, lung failure,” she said. “I’m here today because I promised myself that I was going to walk across the stage today.”
Many of the students have close relationships with staff at HANDY and with CEO Kirk Brown, who said in a statement, “HANDY launched its Scholars Breakfast with just one student graduating from college, and to see how far we’ve come is a testament to our remarkable community support.”
One scholar who couldn’t make it to the breakfast, 31-year-old Javen Durham, graduated from Meharry Medical College on May 19. He got involved with HANDY as a teenager, and around the same time experienced the foster care system and the death of his younger sister. He said HANDY helped him to focused on school and his future.
“Everyone has their own personal situation going on, and so it provides a huge distraction,” he said. “There’s so many things I wasn’t thinking about at that time that are important, and they knew were important, so they helped walk me through all those different steps.”
From applying for colleges and financial aid to having mentors to help him channel emotions like anger and emptiness, he credits the program.
Durham’s next step is to begin an orthodontic residency program at Jacksonville University in July. He looks forward to restoring patients’ smiles and giving back. He said that without HANDY, he “definitely wouldn’t have gotten this far.”
Felicia Ray, who received the 2018 Kids Choice Award during the breakfast, has been a staff member at HANDY for five