New York Center for Interpersonal Development blog: You Can Change Anthony's Life This Christmas

People like you helped La'Shara change her life.
Now you can help change her brother Anthony's.

"The ACE staff never gave up on me. Not like the school."

Support from people like you helped La'Shara change her life. Will you help others like La'Shara, too?

La'Shara told me she stopped going to school when she turned sixteen. It wasn't the classes, she told us, it was the cliques and gangs, the 'he said, she said,' and the bullying.

"When I turned fifteen, I was on my own. My mother was doing a Michael Jackson -- doing everything she couldn't do when she became a mom so young. She said I had to look out for myself."

After hanging out on the streets for a few years doing "all the stuff that you know you shouldn't do," La'Shara's friend told her she should stop wasting her life. He told her about ACE -- one of the programs your donations to NYCID support.

Changing Is Hard Work

"They [staff] told me not to join up unless I was serious," La'Shara said. "I thought I was serious, but I didn't stop doing all those other things, so I wasn't showing up for class. But, they wouldn't give up on me. They are relentless!"

"ACE is so much more than a GED program," she continued. "It's the tough love, the counseling. They push you. They find you like the FBI when you're missing. You can talk to them about anything."

La'Shara's turn-around started two years ago. She passed her GED on her first try. She completed an internship at a day care center, and she discovered she likes helping people.

With Your Help Comes Success

Today, thanks to you and other NYCID supporters, La'Shara is completing the final licensing steps necessary to open her own day care center. She has her own apartment and, after discovering she likes biology, she is considering a career as a doctor.

When I asked La'Shara if I could share her story in this letter, she said, "Tell them it all started here at ACE. Not at my high school. Not with my momma or my daddy. Not any of the other programs I started and dropped. It all started from ACE...

"And thank them [all of you] for me for helping to make me successful."

Help Others Like
La'Shara

La'Shara's younger brother, Anthony, has been on the streets for a while now. He's seen how La'Shara has turned her life around. He'd like to give ACE a try, too. Your donation this Christmas will help give him a chance to change his life.

ACE, Achievement in Career and Education, is one of three alternative education programs NYCID runs for over 600 Staten Island and Brooklyn high school age youth who are failing or have dropped out.

Will you make a year-end gift to help La'Shara's younger brother, Anthony, and others like him follow in La'Shara's footsteps?

Your gift will benefit young people who never thought they'd graduate earn their high school diploma or GED, develop good work habits and skills through internships, and plan for a future as responsible, caring citizens and parents.

The tax year is drawing to a close. Please make your tax-deductible contribution today, before you get caught up in the hectic holiday hubbub and miss the tax benefits.

We join La'Shara in thanking those of you who helped change her life. Please make the same opportunity available for Anthony.

Sincerely,