Today we’d like to introduce you to JDC
Hi JDC, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
JDC i.e. Juniors Deserve Candor, was created in February, where we planned to meet weekly at Morgan State University to brainstorm, plan and coordinate our first steps toward building our organization. We consist of 3 young adults with the vision to build our community. JDC focuses on building up the youth in Baltimore city, teaching emotional regulation, allowing different ways of expression, and improving quality of life by exposing them to unique experiences. Since our first meeting, we have been working nonstop towards our goals and milestones. So far we have received grants to bring our visions to life, and have planned and executed monthly community events as of October. We have thrown a vision board event, hiking, and have an upcoming movie night in December.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, it hasn’t been a completely smooth road. One of the main struggles has been figuring out how to classify our organization and determine the best logistical structure. We’ve also faced challenges in finding a sponsor to support our initiatives, which delayed some of our plans. Another challenge has been the lack of having a consistent meeting location, making it difficult to build a sense of abidance and community within ourselves. Additionally, waiting on funding has created uncertainty and slowed our ability to move forward with this year’s events and certain projects. Despite these struggles, we’ve continued to aggrandize our mission and push forth new ways to adapt.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We’re three young black women who have collaborated on this project because of our own and combined specialties. Janae Graham is a cosmetologist, writer and wellness enthusiast. Diamond is a full time student, aspiring social worker, and mental health advocate. Chloe is a land stewardess, a mixed media artist, and model.
Together we make lifelong friends and co-founders with passions for building up the next generation.
We’re most proud of attaining the Youth as Resources grant that has funded most of our events. We’ve come out of pocket for some of our events, so having their funding has lifted some weight off our shoulders.
What sets us apart from others is that we serve a wide range of people. We believe that the student can be the teacher but also the teacher can be the student. We’ve initially accepted ages 12-22 as members and ages 16+ for mentorship/leadership roles. Now we’re accepting all ages as members and have specific events for different ages but almost all events are meant to be inclusive for youth and the wise to congregate.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
The reason we feel drawn to tackle our mission, together, started while we were in high school. We’d sit on these steps outside of the school in warm and cold weather and we’d just talk and get our frustrations out about the world— plenty of times we thought up solutions as well. The conversations would be so interesting to us all and raised our energies, so we knew we needed to start a podcast one day (coming soon). Before starting the podcast, time passed and when Janae brought up maybe starting an organization— not even a year after graduating, we all had the same idea and immediately began meeting and planning.
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