Grassroots.org

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Rhonda G. Mincey is the Founder and President of Made 2B MoreSM, an organization that exists to help girls reach their full potential through workshops, conferences and books. She is a speaker, author, and mother to three teenagers. She has been a panelist for various topics, including the One Million Mentors Campaign, with nationally syndicated radio host, Michael Basiden. Rhonda is a 2006 L'Oreal Women of Worth Award, finalist, and a recipient of the prestigious 2006 TBS Pathfinders Award for community service. In her spare time, she loves to travel and write poetry.

For more information, please visit Made 2B More. Inc website

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Tonya Kurtova, a volunteer for Advita Fund USA, grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was there where she studied biology/immunology at St. Petersburg State University. During her practice in leukemia diagnostics at Pavlov State Medical University, she witnessed first-hand the challenges that Russian cancer patients face: from lack of medications and supplies, to widespread infections and financial struggles. Upon her graduation, Tonya had a chance to come to the US in 2007 to continue her studies. She worked as a researcher for Leukemia Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and is currently pursuing graduate degree in biomedical sciences. Tonya’s long-term goal is to become a translational biology researcher to bridge the bench and bedside for novel cancer therapeutics.

Tonya became one of the first volunteers of Advita Fund USA once it was established in the US. Advita Fund USA works closely with AdVita fund in Russia, which supports the same patients Tonya had been helping as a young immunology student. For Tonya, it is a chance to use her education and knowledge to help Russian patients get access to the latest cancer treatments unavailable at home by arranging for consultations with medical experts and helping find matching clinical trials or other treatment options.

As Henry Ford once said: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”. Tonya believes that her professional and personal attitude in helping cancer patients as a volunteer for AdVita Fund USA will help in bringing a real change to many cancer patients in Russia.

For more information, please visit Advita Fund USA website

Our latest video is a thoughtful theory of how change comes from within the family structure. Watch as Alim Muhammed lists the steps it takes to make some real shifts as he uses sports to reach the youth in the Los Angeles area.

Alim Muhammed was born in Los Angeles, CA and currently a single father of his daughter Sumayyah and son Ayinde. In 1994, Alim founded Smiley’s Bookstore in Carson, CA. Immediately after launching the store, he self-published the “Science of 7” in 1995. Alim is a motivational speaker, health consultant and metaphysician with 30 years of experience working with inner-city youth in LA. Most recently, he formed the nonprofit, 3-D Sports Academy, which uses sports as a tool to reach the family structure by placing an athlete in a unique sports environment that provides skills beyond the athletic world. Along with his work at 3-D Sports Academy, Alim also published “The Spiritual and Mental Dimensions of Basketball” that same year.

Email Alim Muhammed for more information on 3-D Sports Academy!

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Kathy Stevens, Founder and Director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, spent her childhood on a Virginia horse farm. It was in many ways an idyllic youth, one that instilled in her a deep love of and respect for all animals. Little did she know how such a childhood would shape her future!

Kathy left the south for graduate school in Boston, MA, where she spent eleven years as a high school English teacher. She received widespread recognition for her novel approaches to education, and in 2000 was asked to head a charter school in Boston. Instead, one year later, she opened Catskill Animal Sanctuary, one of the country's leading havens for farm animals and a center for raising public awareness of their sentience and their suffering.

Kathy's first book, Where the Blind Horse Sings, shares the life-changing lessons learned from a blind horse, a sheep, a pig, and a rooster, and received much critical and popular acclaim. It has just been released in paperback after three hardcover printings. Her second book will be released in late 2010.

Kathy lives behind the barn with her dog Hannah, CAS's Director of Canine Pursuits, and her cats Fat Boy and Mouse. She's an avid reader, loves to hike, swim, and bike, and spends rare quiet time with her partner David and her close friends.

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Christine and Willie Davis the Founders of, Non Profit 501C3, Annointed One Properties are on a mission to assist those in need. Christine and Willie created Annointed One Properties with the need of others in mind. Both born and raised in Jackson, MS have learned that it is more blessed to give than to receive. And that is what Christine and Willie are out to do.

Christine and Willie are set out to assist the elderly, so that they live in homes that feel like home. Many people look at where our elderly live, but few are willing to make a difference. They are determined to make a difference in battered women and children’s lives. Neither has experienced being battered, but both have experienced the lifestyle of a woman, and the children living within that situation first hand. No one deserves living in such a life destroying situation.

Christine and Willie, both hold bachelor degrees from a well known college, but have chosen to go in ways which do not include either of their degrees. Striving to learn more and more each day about changing and bettering the lives of those around them, Christine and Willie have dedicated their lives to assisting others.

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Rebecca Kantar is a founder of Minga, a youth-run not-for-profit organization working to empower youth to take action against the child sex trade. Since 2007, Rebecca has been directing Minga. Minga has raised over $80,000 and has educated thousands of teens, preventing them from becoming involved in the sex trade as victims or abusers. Next year, Rebecca will move to Minga’s Board of Directors as she attends Harvard University.

Beyond Minga, Rebecca serves as a youth advisor to Ashoka’s Youth Venture and to Do Something. Her interest in human trafficking led Rebecca to work with Harvard students and faculty to organize Destination Freedom, an annual academic conference on modern-day slavery. For her leadership, Rebecca was awarded the TIME Magazine and Bentley University Tomorrow25 Award, the Seven Days Across America “Most Encouraging Teen” Award, and the Cornell University Junior Book Award.

For more information, please visit Minga Group's website

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Michelle Solomon started SIFF (Sharing Interests Forming Friendships) club back in the fall of 2009. After working as an Applied Behavior Analysis Therapist for a year and a half to a girl with autism as well as being in the peer coach classes at school for a semester, she realized she was able to form friendships with those mentally challenged students. Solomon wanted to share her passion with others and show them the similar interests high school students and special needs students have in common, so she created SIFF in order to break down those barriers and encourage them to form friendships. She worked with Youth Venture and presented to get a $1,000 grant with two of her friends. The hope for SIFF is that someday it can grow and become a national club. Solomon says, "the reason the club has been so successful and sustainable so far, is because everyone in the club is so supportive of my efforts and what we do". Michelle Solomon will be heading to Western Washington University in the fall of 2010 to study recreational therapy and she says "she can't wait to check back in with SIFF, or even create another one while she's there"!

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Sharrie Kreh and the US Army have a long history of togetherness. Her father was a service member who served in World War II and later was a St. Louis City Fire Fighter for 36 years maintaining his professional bearing in uniform. During his war experience he sent home parachute silk from World War I, which was used to make Sharon’s christening gown. Three members of Sharrie’s family graduated from West Point. Her youngest son is a Major in the Army.

A son and daughter-in law saw action in Iraq in the conflict’s beginning and from their deployment came the idea for G4U. Let those deployed in harm’s way receive care packages from the home front showing them that complete strangers honor them for their service and unselfish duty to their country and its citizens. G4U was founded in 2004 and since that beginning has sent over 17,000 care packages and grown from a handful of volunteers to today’s count of over 120.

Learn more about Goodies for You on their website.

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Adam L. Perkins is the CEO of Taplets, Inc., nonprofit organization intersecting literacy, entrepreneurship, diversity, and technology education. A brilliant, engaging, and informative speaker, Mr. Perkins provides view points on human relations in America rarely discussed in an effort to bring people together. Perkins is an honor graduate of Winston Salem State University. There he received his BA in Psychology. He is also an ordained Elder. Perkins is also the author of Looking over Black Shoulders [ISBN: 0-9793927-1-3], a book that provides such an eye-opening perspective [literally] on the subject of race relations. Perkins insists that bringing people together across racial lines is possible, but only if they are ready to change.

He assists organizations to use technology to optimize their office system so they too can be more efficient. Perkins utilizes enduring integrity and forthright appeal to authoritatively engage his audience. Adam's passion is people and that same passion reverberates through his work.

Launched by Grassroots.org, Faces of Change is a series of videos that highlight how individuals are contributing to change in their communities. Our latest video is from:

Over the last eight years and during Founder/Director Mrs. Clarks' journey of discovery in bettering her children's education, Mrs. Clark has explored many options including home schooling, charter schools and local public school settings. Through her involvement with these educational systems, she has not only found strengths and weaknesses in these systems that affected her children's learning abilities, but she also encountered other families asking similar questions in attempt to improve their own children's educational experiences. In the gathering of these families together, Mrs. Clark discovered the families were able to help each other, especially in understanding how to teach children with learning difficulties such ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, neurological disorders and processing disorders. In addition to more successful child-focused learning techniques, families further found themselves better able to cope with their children's struggles because of increased social supports and shared skills. This experience gave credibility to Mrs. Clark's vision of one day having a Resource and Literacy Center that would function as a place for families to come for educational helps and supports.

Check out New Heights Educational Group's website for more information!