Programs
The Reciprocity Foundation offers programming focused on three areas:
1) Career & College Preparation
2) Leadership & Social Entrepreneurship
3) Integral Well-Being
Proof of Concept is a comprehensive career and college preparation program for high-potential, high-risk youth. The Reciprocity Foundation staff and industry professionals from leading corporations (see Our Team for a full description) co-teach concrete change strategies and tools to enable youth to set and achieve career goals. The Proof of Concept program focuses on the Creativity Economy—the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy and a sector in which urban youth have enormous interest and talent.
Our interactive classes simulate a high-energy professional workplace or college classroom to prepare youth for the real world—classes address deficiencies in the youth’s skill sets including critical thinking, media literacy and collaboration. Class topics include: Applied Creativity, Leadership, Critical and Integrative thinking, Information Literacy, Project and Time Management, Public Speaking, Collaboration, Networking and Social Entrepreneurship. We also provide individual coaching and counseling to youth participants.
At the end of the year-long program, youth will have applied to college and secured a full financial aid package, gained hands-on work experience in the Creativity Economy and moved out of the shelter system.
The Reciprocity Foundation also offers an Integral Wellness program called Living Well that teaches the principles of holistic health and wellbeing. This program provides individual counseling, psychotherapy, nutrition, life-coaching, yoga, mindfulness-based stress management, support groups (human potential, LGBT, HIV+) and referrals to our network of highly trained medical and Complementary & Alternative Medical (CAM) therapists including acupuncture and shiatsu.
After an initial consultation, we jointly develop a wellness plan with each young adult that includes specific action steps related to improving their personal well-being. For youth that are struggling with anger management, meditation classes and individual counseling are offered. For those struggling with abuse or gender issues, a combination of yoga, individual counseling and treatments with CAM practitioners has proven effective. For those that are moving out the shelter system to live independently, individual and nutritional counseling are essential to helping them establish healthy living patterns in their new residences.
The Reciprocity Foundation also operates a Leadership Institute for homeless youth who are aspiring entrepreneurs, visionaries and community leaders. The Institute engages corporate and community leaders to coach youth on the design and execution of a creative project with a socially responsible framework. This program enables youth to develop a marketable concept, lead the project team and secure seed funding.
In 2007, the Reciprocity Foundation created a new program entitled Power Couples that pairs youth with leading designers, media professionals, stylists and performers for a hands-on, professional work experience. Each Power Couple will co-create an object (stationery, t-shirt, accessory), media (short film, song, spoken word) or style a person/event. Current Power Couples include fashion designer Nicole Miller, photo-journalist Peter Turnley, stylist Liz Shein and filmmaker Spike Lee. Each fall, at the Reciprocity Foundation’s annual benefit, the Power Couples will debut the object of their collaboration.