Community MVP: HeartSmiles supports youth success through a peer model
BALTIMORE -- HeartSmiles is dedicated to supporting young people and helping them achieve their goals.
"Whatever a young person envisions for their life, that becomes our goal," HeartSmiles Founder Joni Holifield said. "We don't tell a young person or dictate to them what success looks like. We allow them to tell us and then we put them at the intersection of access and opportunity so that they can realize whatever their vision is that they have for themselves and their lives."
Sometimes that goal is achieved through an internship in their area of interest. Sometimes, that looks like providing them with mentorship.
"We do anything and everything to help young people build up their capacity as leaders, as entrepreneurs," Holifield said.
Holifield said her organization aims to build up every young person through a peer model or near-peer model.
Success is measured by assisting young people with finding their place in the world by occasionally "failing forward," meaning that they can try everything that interests them, change their minds, and grow from there, she said.