Community Empowerment Network (CEN) was organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes as defined in IRC Section 501(c) (3). Specifically, Community Empowerment Network, Inc.’s purpose is to provide a safe place for low income, underserved adolescent children to congregate and engage in activities designed to keep them off the streets, out of gangs and off drugs.

CEN’s Youth outreach program reason for forming.

Today’s youth have been bombarded with slogans such as “Say no to drugs,” “Stay in School” and “Abstinence.” But such passive campaigns fail in providing youth with active positive alternatives. CEN believes the pathway to better serving our youth is through sports, music and the arts, where the lines of communication are open for proper direction.

Community Empowerment Network, Inc. can provide our youth a full fledged community based program that will provide summer basketball camp tournaments, winter indoor soccer camp tournaments, Music and Arts clinics coupled with after school mentoring programs. We are committed to helping children develop character, self esteem; promote values of discipline, motivation and a sense of community.

Our focus is a passion-driven system that will help young adults identify, pursue, and ultimately realize their personal goals. In a society that emphasizes financial gain above all else, teen-agers have few opportunities or incentives to explore and develop skills that excite them to the core. Instead, young people are told that their success in life will depend on how much money they make. Many of these youths become disaffected and disengaged because they find no relevance in the academic and vocational paths available to them. Their expectations remain unfulfilled and their financial aspirations are crushed.

To counter balance the prospects of unfulfilled expectations, CEN will address such concerns with said child. (Ideally, we would like to engage said child at thirteen years of age) by working with children thirteen years and older. We believe that (this age marks) as students enter adolescence, they begin to wonder about themselves and what life in the future holds for them, which we believe is the point of a child’s life where they are starting to find themselves. In that process however they are subject to many influences some of which may not be in their best developmental interest. Therefore, it is imperative that these children have the community intervention programs available that will deter negative influences while also serve as a complementary component to that of their families’ in providing them with the support system critical to their overall development

Through a series of volunteer related initiatives the children will be engaged in a series of activities that will help them discover their pathway toward self-actualization. We will conduct an interest assessment, in the form of a survey, for each child to better serve and guide them. In doing so, the objective is to align the child with the initiative that best fits their respective interest. Our expectation is such that at the conclusion of a child’s participation, each young adult will be able to apply the values learned in a proactive way in their decision making process when dealing with real life situations.

Academic Enrichment Program

The Academic Enrichment Program will provide our youth educational re-inforcements.

Learn more here

Sports Program

The Sports Program will engage our youth through basketball, soccer and volleyball.

www.skyhoops.org www.skykicks.org www.skyspike.org

Music Program

The Music Program will engage our youth through dance.

Learn more here

CEN's Network Websites

Friends