I am proud to announce that I made a Commitment to Action at the 10th Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting called Project:NOW (PN), a non-profit initiative co-founded with the brilliant David Garner and Angelique Sheppard, that stresses urgency in addressing the educational needs of at-risk youth in America. To help raise funding, we held the Inaugural Legacy Project Dinner on Wednesday, September 24, 2014, honoring President George W. Bush. The evening was hosted by “The Good Wife’s” Chris Noth… aka ‘Mr. Big.’ Thanks Chris!
We also honored Bush for his commitment to youth in education over the years. Derrell Frazier, a young man that directly benefitted from Bush’s programs to help children of incarcerated parents, is now studying to be an attorney! We’re so proud of Derrell and our partner US Dream Academy, of which Derrell was a student.
The evening also featured an address from Dr. Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi, and was sponsored by Amway, IBOA, and Unite4:Good. Thanks so much!!
Project:NOW was formed by our non-profit, Always In The Club Foundation, in partnership with US Dream Academy, Cherokee Gives Back, Arthur Wylie Foundation, and PVBLIC Foundation. Its mission is to help at-risk youth compete in a modern, global economy. PN will leverage its partners’ core competencies, existing infrastructures, and years of on-hand experience to accelerate their activities – uniquely, and relentlessly, stressing the urgency of NOW. Programs include innovative literacy interventions and intensive entrepreneurship training courses that help create leaders in underserved communities. PN is also developing leading-edge funding strategies, including public/private partnerships that utilize Social Impact Bonds to scale success. These organizations have years of on-hand experience and infrastructures that will help us make a real difference in the lives of so many young people. Thanks for teaming up with us guys!
I’m excited to be working with CGI and all of our partners to launch what we believe will help change the way we as a country respond to young people most in need of help. I’m so thankful and honored that President Bush, who has been at the forefront of bringing these issues to a national platform, participated in our first event – a testament to his ongoing commitment to supporting our youth.
And a very special thank you to the Executive Producer of the Inaugural Legacy Project Dinner – Ryan Hampton, and Producer Billie Mitchell. Outstanding work!
For more information on Project:NOW, visit ProjectNOWInitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @PNInitiative, and Facebook at facebook.com/ProjectNOWForYouth.
Please check out the photos of my time at Clinton Global Initiative, and our evening with President George W. Bush. And please spread the word about Project:NOW!
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes leaders to turn ideas into action. CGI Commitments to Action represent bold new ways that CGI members address global challenges—implemented through new methods of partnership and designed to maximize impact. Commitments can be small or large, global or local. No matter the size or scope, commitments help CGI members translate practical goals into meaningful and measurable results.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,100 Commitments to Action, which are already improving the lives of more than 430 million people in over 180 countries.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative
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