Adulting 101 | Budgeting

For our second session, Jasmine Lopez, our Co-Founder and Executive Director, led the Adulting 101 youth cohort through all things budgeting. First, Jasmine talked about categorizing the youth’s finances through PocketGaurd, a budgeting app, or Google spreadsheets. After, Jasmine said although it may be hard to look at your spending habits, it is good to start seeing where you spend more or less which would help them create their budgets. Right after, Jasmine started helping everyone create their own budgets. Then, with whatever money was left over for savings, Jasmine helped create a plan for saving toward those dreams that were previously identified in the money-healing workshop.

Thank you Jasmine for leading the first half of our first Adulting 101 cohort. Your knowledge and grace will continue to impact our community.

Adulting 101 | Money Healing

One of TFD’s pillars to complete our mission is education about financial wellness. In a community where 26k is our average income, we want to create opportunities for youth to learn good financial habits now to achieve financial freedom in the future. Along with this goal, we asked our youth what they wanted to learn before starting adulthood. Hence, Adulting 101 was started.

This workshop, Jasmine Lopez, Co-founder and Executive Director led the youth through a money-healing workshop. The purpose was to reframe your thoughts about money in order to achieve “limitless dreaming”. Jasmine talked about creative provision as well, which is using resources around you and faith that one day you will receive what you wish for. Then, the youth made limitless goals of what they wanted. Some stated traveling, building their own business, and living in beautiful houses. Check out the pictures below for the full story!

Thank you so much Jasmine for continuing to be vulnerable with your story to show others and our youth how success is anything you put your mind to.

Proviso East | Mental Health Kit Giveaway and Health Fair

Yesterday, the Firehouse Dream Team went to Proviso East to hand out 153 more kits to the high school students. Thanks to our team, we ran out once again at each lunch period, but thanks to our partnership with the Loyola Health clinic, we can now do weekly drop offs to the students who have not received one. In total, we have now given away 600 kits to our local high school students. Thank you so much to our supporters for believing in this mission!

While the team was in the lunch room passing out kits, Jasmine and Maya went around to a couple of class rooms to educate our students on how money can impact mental health! Jasmine shared her story on how money has impacted her personal life. She presented '“money truths” to help the students believe in themselves and that money is a tool.

The Firehouse Dream has been making an impact in our community! Thank you all for following along in our journey!

Community Yoga | March 4th

Hey friends! Last Saturday we held our first yoga session for our community. We had mentees and community members join us for beginner yoga with Kathy Khang. Our intention for yoga for the community is to provide a safe space to stretch and relax your body, but also to just take a break and let that long sigh out. Kathy first led us through a couple of basic stretches and then went into a sequence of movements that helped with getting in touch with our body. After, we slowed down and went into self-reflecting poses.

Of course, thank you Kathy for leading us through a great first community yoga session. Our next yoga event will be Saturday, April 1st, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. We look forward to seeing you there!

Yoga and Journaling | Session 2

This weekend, TFD partnered again with Kathy Khang for our second yoga and journaling session. Our sessions are open to all Proviso community members. The yoga is very gentle on our body, yet provides a stretch that will last all week!

In this session, Kathy started with some breathwork. She stated that this would calm our bodies and create a clear headspace for journaling. During this session, Kathy guided our group through a self-check-in. She asked our group “What is your heart feeling?” or “What is your body feeling?” Afterward, we explored some new yoga poses like star, warrior, and crane. After our stretching, we returned to the self-check-in to see what had changed.

Thank you Kathy for leading us through another great session. Our next session is February 18th, from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. Community members, please volunteer here for our last session of this cohort!