Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 7-22-22

Chandelier Transformations Youth Mentoring (CTYM) Promotes Confidence In Black Girls
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
Chandelier Transforma- tions Youth Mentoring (CTYM) was founded by Kathy R. Smith. She and her husband, Anthony Smith, are both active in the community and aiming to make Tampa the best community the best it can be.
Smith shares that as she was retiring from the military, God put on heart to help young girls navigate society in an age of social media and negative societal influences.
After retirement, the Smiths came back to Tampa. The couple has a
blended family of seven children and with the two youngest still at home, the couple was determined to do everything they could for their ‘home base’.
The mission of CTYM is to “bring together Middle School and High School girls in the Tampa Bay Area from lower socio-economic neighborhoods to create a strong sisterhood that em- powers, motivates and up- lifts them while teaching them to make a powerful impact in a global econ- omy.”
Smith emphasizes the importance of self-esteem for Black girls.
“We started to mentor Black girls and educate
CTYM Founder and Executive Director Kathy R. Smith
them on healthy relation- ships, suicide prevention, entrepreneurship, and to help them bridge the edu-
cation gap that exists for our students.”
Tutoring is a key facet to the program. Tutoring schedules reflect the school year so that students can get real time help in their classroom.
This summer, CTYM hosted interns from the Ca- reer Source Summer Hires Program. This led to CTYM’s first Summer Camp running from July 18, 2022 - August 5, 2022.
During the camp, the girls will train and receive certificates in Virtual Assis- tants, Social Media Mar- keting, Basic Finance and Accounting, CPR and In- troduction to Grant Writ- ing.
There will also be many guest speakers. The young ladies are especially look- ing forward to getting out on the town with Visit Tampa Bay.
Smith states that CTYM was able to provide this training through partnership with Tampa Bay Community Foundation, Career Source Tampa Bay, Rebein Broth- ers Law Firm (Paul Re- bein) and private donations from the Smith family. The organi- zation is solely supported by donations.
For more informa- tion about CTYM:
Call - 813-898-2777 Email - info@CTYM.org Website - www.ctym.org Facebook
- https://www.face- book.com/Chandelier- sTransformationsYout hMentoring
Instagram
- https://www.insta-
gram.com/chandelier- transformationsyouth/
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