New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Young women’s empowerment fundraiser to offer vision
NEW HAVEN — Every queen needs a vision.
At the very least, that’s what Tasheha RickettsKidd, executive director of Daughters of Divine Destiny Academy, hopes to convey.
“A lot of times, young ladies have experienced traumatic experiences that have affected how they see themselves,” she said.
D3 Academy, a nonprofit, was founded in 2014 as an after-school program at James Hillhouse High School to work with atrisk girls. Today, the program operates at Hillhouse and Wilbur Cross High School, with about 20 girls associated with the program from both schools.
“Our goal is to change the trajectory of how they see themselves, and maybe their behaviors will follow,” Ricketts-Kidd said.
One of the ways of doing that, she said, is embedded in the “divine” philosophy.
“We want them to understand they are young queens,” she said.
The academy Dec. 16 will hold a fundraiser at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, where an estimated 200 women will make vision boards. For the $69 cost of entry, Ricketts-Kidd said attendees get food and access to inspirational speakers and coaches who will help them create a vision board, or a physical representation of their goals and the steps they will take to reach them.
Myana Mallory, a senior at Wilbur Cross, said a similar vision board program she did with the D3 Academy was “beneficial”
“We want them to understand they are young queens.”
Tasheha Ricketts-Kidd, executive director of Daughters of Divine Destiny Academy
to her.
“It gave me a chance to align my goals and get my thoughts and ideas together to know what I really wanted, not just out of the school year but in all aspects of how I wanted to grow,” Mallory said. “(D3 Academy) builds our confidence and we talk about self-love.”
Recently, Mallory said participants did a “Woman Crush Wednesday” program in which they prepared a paper and presentation on a woman who inspires them. Mallory said she selected actor Taraji P. Henson, known for playing the role of the domineering Cookie in the television show “Empire.”
“She was so determined, no matter her obstacles,” Mallory said, something she felt she could translate to her own life as the founder of the fashion brand GlowGetter. She said, in high school, she’s seen girls argue about shades of skin, so she made a hoodie with the message “beauty has no skin tone.”
“I’m really into fashion; I work on providing positive messages through the accessories,” she said.
Speakers at D3 Academy’s fundraiser will be television star and entertainment industry insider Yandy Smith and WTNH News8’s Jocelyn Maminta.