Empower Our Youth--Finalist in the @15 Community Impact Challenge

Introducing Empower Our Youth from Wellesley, MA. Empower Our Youth is one of the 15 finalists in the @15 Community Impact Challenge.




Having enjoyed the sense of self-confidence and empowerment practical self-defense had given her in high school Thuy Pham was surprised to learn that a very small number of schools in Massachusetts offered them. None of these schools are in inner-city districts, where there are the highest chances of females facing date rape, altercations, and domestic violence.




Concerned by this fact and wanting to share the benefits of such a class to these populations, Thuy started Empower Our Youth, a non-profit of teens working together to help other teens. It seeks to provide self-defense and self-esteem building classes to public schools, especially inner-city schools, in hopes of preparing all students with the life skills to safely approach and overcome any dangerous social situation in their future. In addition to organization members who give presentations about sexual violence to female students in different local schools, Empower our Youth has also set the foundations for seven different schools to integrate full self-defense programs into their fitness departments by next year. Since its founding, Empower Our Youth has funded self-defense classes in a number of different schools, impacting over 400 female and male students and empowering females for a lifetime.




If selected as a Challenge recipient, Empower Our Youth would fund more self-defense classes to additional inner-city schools in Massachusetts, and possibly expand to schools outside of the state. The organization would also utilize film and online media websites to present a documentary on the positive impact of EOY’s self-defense classes ultimately spread general awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence against women.








Between March 15 - April 2, 2010, you get to decide which five of the 15 finalist teams of young social entrepreneurs will each receive $5,000 and which five teams will receive $1,500 each to expand their local ventures. So be sure to cast your vote on at15 between March 15 - April 2, 2010.