"We take one day at a time; one moment in time; it makes a difference in the life of a child." ---Joyce A. Graham
I have long envisioned arriving at a point in my life where I could exercise my civic responsibility and give back to my community in as large a capacity, as possible. Primarily, it was, and still remains, my ultimate goal to especially come to the aid of my community's youth, who as a social group, are the most vulnerable to the ills burdening society today. So, in 1999, I expressed my commitment to serve my community and forged my vision into reality, by officially establishing the WISE Community Development Corporation, a Maryland non-profit, community based service entity. Otherwise known as WISE CDC, the WISE Community Development Corporation has as its core mission prerogatives, the promotion of strong community transformation through economic empowerment and social awareness. We expend particular emphasis on finding and implementing worthy safeguards in the form of knowledge, and positive inter-personal associations, to guide our precious youth in overcoming the social dangers which entrap a large segment of their population. Drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, homelessness, suicide, and simply the spectra of crime and violence, generally, casts a long, depressing shadow over the quality of life on a great number of our community's youth. WISE seeks to be a brilliant point of light in their lives! Through the WISE after school program, young people are assisted with completing homework assignments, get help with preparing for PSAT/SAT academic evaluation examinations, and are exposed to opportunities to immerse themselves in foreign language studies. At present, the foreign language studies program includes access to French, German and Spanish electronic study tutorials. Computer games, supervised Internet access, an extensive CD Rom library compiled with numerous subject matter, movie nights, group discussions, choral and music activities, walk-a-thons, and back-to-school shopping sprees, are some of the social outlets available to our young folks for their enjoyment, and the uplifting of their self esteem.