The mission of Penny Mill, a non-profit organization is to bring various ethnic groups together at events to empower our communities.  Moreover, to empower one another of the importance of our differences as people. Plus to show our young people, that we are all necessary in our world, our cities, and our communities. How we are able to do this is to collaborate with various businesses to help make it possible to have these events to the public. Our winter event; is to have at least 60 to 70 children from different backgrounds. Our emphasis is to make sure none of the children are placed on the same team with children they already know. This event will be scheduled for a date between December 26th - January 1st annually.

Program Goals And Strategic Plans:

Goal #1 - Annual "Community Event" – Many individuals are in dire need of assistance. Some feel threatened and intimidated by the bureaucratic structure of many of our governmental and social agencies and therefore fail to tap into their services. Consequently, the person’s needs and the needs of their families go unmet, perpetuating a cycle of, despair, poverty, and crime. The purpose of the Empowerment Event is to link persons in need of assistance with organizations that may be of help to them in a casual and less threatening environment. In order to accomplish this goal, we work with entities such as Kansas City Health Department and their associations, as well as many other agencies. We hope Penny Mill can be a  catalyst to change a street, change a block and ultimately change a community.

Strategic Plan: Penny Mill will serve as a catalyst in the inner city for collaborating and identifying the many resources available in our community and bringing them together. The Plan involves sponsoring an outdoor fun-filled day where government agencies, social, churches, and businesses will host booths (tables) containing literature about their organization and others for attendees. Persons in need of the organization’s supplies and/or services will be sign-up for services on the spot. Also, music, storytelling, positive rap, family games, and light refreshments will be available that day in order to enhance the festivities and increase attendance.

Goal #2 –Grade Watch Incentive (GWIP)

A future goal of Penny Mill is to motivate and encourage at-risk socially disadvantaged youth to bring their grades up and stay in school and achieve their highest potential.

Strategic Plan- The high school dropout rate in our communities is reaching an all-time high. Youth without a career goal are prime candidates for gangs, and other deviant behavior.  Many of these youths have the intelligence to succeed and become outstanding human beings in our community with just a little direction and guidance. The program proposes to work with schools to assist students who have the potential to succeed but many of them slip through the crack. Specifically, The Grade Watch will utilize monetary and non-monetary awards such as tablets, Ipads, and other products to motivate youth to focus on improving their grades and stay in school. The program’s pilot initiative is a 1 to 3 increase in those children participating in the program.

Benefits: The program is fun, competitive, and rewarding, all of which appeal to youth. In addition, it is essential goal setting skills and helps the student remain focused on their education.

The Penny – Our goal is to collect one million pennies, which equates to $10,000. Although this is not a substantial amount of money, it will be used as seed money to finance the cost of The Annual Awareness Fair, as well as, assist in providing the monetary and non-monetary awards for the Grade Watch Incentive Awards Program.