ADVISOR REBECCA DAVIS AND MINDLEAPS
MindLeaps is a 501(c)3 organization based in the United States and working in post-conflict and developing countries to permanently decrease the number of street children. According to Founder of MindLeaps and FLOBEL Advisor Rebecca Davis, street children do not simply need food and shelter handed to them. They need a comprehensive program that can reform their aggressive behavior from street life and equip them with skills that are in demand in their country’s labor force – thereby opening the way to employment and self-sufficiency. MindLeaps administers a three phase approach to help street children develop their mental skills. First, the organization uses dance to “catch up” street children bringing them to a normal level of cognitive development while shaping their behavioral transformation from aggression and survival to optimism and discipline. Secondly, the organization equips them with the vocational skills needed to leap forward in life. Lastly, youth who have participated in phase one and two receive multi-year sponsorship to attend boarding school in their own country thereby breaking the poverty cycle in their family. Davis tells Nectar News that the future of MindLeaps lies in growing its model to rehabilitate and re-integrate street children through multiple sites in Rwanda, followed by replicating the model in other post-conflict and developing countries – especially across the continent of Africa where dance is often a huge attraction to youth. FLOBELAadvisor Nicole Johnson recently spoke with Davis about the history of and community response to MindLeaps in a special in a special Nectar News interview.
The mission of MindLeaps is to fully and completely transition under served youth from a life on the streets to a stable life in school or in the workplace. MindLeaps students who graduate from boarding school break their own poverty cycle. The organization has seen time and time again that providing one African with a decent living salary results in him or her supporting an entire family as well as relatives and friends. Visit the organization on social media and learn more about supporting their programming by visiting the website.