Five pieces of one heart
Each program teaches something a family needs: science and reading for the youngest, skills and steady adults for teenagers, a way back for young mothers, and plain talk about what breaks families apart.
Summer Science Camp
A summer program for grades 1–5 built on an award-winning science curriculum. Every unit uses a field of engineering as its unifying theme and works on reading along the way.
The summer ends with a showcase of the campers’ talents.
Bringing Books to Life
The Bringing Books to Life Literary Series is for readers aged 3 to 13 in Miami-Dade County. A community space is transformed with three-dimensional props and character decor, so children feel they have stepped into the book, and the activities come straight from its pages, sometimes with a modern twist. The aim is better reading comprehension and a love of reading.
Parents get workshops from experts on using conversation, books and simple activities to spark a child’s desire to learn. Community organizations set up booths with resources families may not know exist, and groups working on family literacy across Miami-Dade get a chance to meet. The series was planned around books such as Alice in Wonderland and Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss.
Leadership Academy
The Vantage Pointe Leadership Academy is an entrepreneurial academy for high school students, with a focus on young African American men. It pairs soft- and hard-skill training with cross-sector career exposure: social enterprise jobs, service and community engagement, internships and apprenticeships.
Students train in business and entrepreneurship, computer skills, web development and software, and learn better money habits. They are connected with committed, caring adults for steady relationships through high school and college, and they give back through service such as feeding the homeless.
Purity’s Pearls
An extension of the Leadership Academy: mentoring for young mothers in the juvenile justice system as they return to their communities. The goal is to reduce recidivism.
The Missing Pieces
Workshops, community classes, lectures and slideshows at schools, libraries and other public places, on the causes of broken families, the work already being done, and the solutions. The talks look at the geographic, economic and social side of broken homes, and they are how families hear about everything else Red Hearts of Hope runs.