MISSION: Project Inspire seeks to enhance the lives of teens and young adults by focusing on college and career preparation, life and leadership skills, the arts, and self and community empowerment. The four programs Project Inspire facilitates are:

• The Project Inspire Young Leaders Program
• The Daphne L. Valcin Scholarship for Creative Minds
• Professional Development Program
• Youth Empowerment and the Arts (YEA) program.  

Learn more about all of Project Inspire’s programs below:

The Project Inspire Scholarship for Creative Minds

Our youth deserve to thrive when they go to college, and this program ensures that scholarship winners have the resources they need to purchase textbooks and materials through a $2,000 scholarship distributed through $250 payments every spring and fall semester for 4 years of their undergraduate education.

Winners of the scholarship must have completed high-quality assignments during their participation in the Project Inspire Young Leaders Program and must also interview with Project Inspire leadership as scholarship finalists to confirm their eligibility to receive the award. From 2003 – 2017, we have distributed $28,200 to 35 total recipients!

Student eligibility for the scholarship program:

• High school junior or senior
• Minimum 2.5 GPA
• Singer, actor, poet, instrumentalist, or dancer (includes marching band auxiliary squad majorettes and flagettes)
• Currently active in a school-based performing arts group, having been a member of the group for at least 2 months
• Students must also be a member of one of our partner schools listed below

 Currently, we partner with:

• North Miami Beach Senior High School: North Miami Beach, FL
• Hallandale High School: Hallandale Beach, FL
• Maynard Evans High School: Orlando, FL
• Eastern High School: Washington, D.C.
• Dunbar High School: Washington, D.C.
• The Seed School of Washington, D.C.: Washington, D.C.
• Martin Luther King High School: Lithonia, GA

The scholarship deadline for fall 2017 has passed. Please check back in fall 2018 for our next scholarship deadline.

Young Leaders Program

This program provides tools and resources for personal and professional achievement with a focus on leadership for youth who are from under-resourced communities. All program participants embark upon a multi-step program in which powerful assignments are given associated with valuable content, including college preparation, career preparation, financial literacy, leadership development, and etiquette. In between assignments, participants engage in live video workshops about this content. The applicants with the best written assignments at the end of the program cycle are eligible candidates for the Daphne L. Valcin Scholarship for Creative Minds.

The program requires that Project Inspire has an official partnership with the program applicants’ school. Currently, we partner with:

• North Miami Beach Senior High School: North Miami Beach, FL
• Hallandale High School: Hallandale Beach, FL
• Maynard Evans High School: Orlando, FL
• Eastern High School: Washington, D.C.
• Dunbar High School: Washington, D.C.
• Martin Luther King High School: Lithonia, GA

Professional Development Program

In 2014, we launched our Professional Development Program. This program incorporates quarterly live video seminars about personal, professional, academic and financial development and features speakers–some who are renown in their communities or nationally. These seminars provide participants with the resources needed for them to flourish and succeed while in college and as young adults.

Recent college graduates or those in their first few years of being in the workforce would greatly benefit from these webinars!

Check out our events page for our next upcoming professional development webinar!

Youth Empowerment and the Arts (YEA) program

YEA Workshops

Project Inspire does workshops of varying lengths for schools, programs and organizations focusing on the components we know make our students successful. Each workshop integrates the performing arts and empowerment but also includes components of all of our programs College and Career Preparation; Life Skills; Arts; and Self and Community Empowerment (CLAS). We currently focus on the performing arts of dance and theatre in our programs. Please check out our Support page on our website to request a customized workshop!

Want a workshop or workshop series at your school?

Project Inspire is committed to providing youth with powerful opportunities to impact their ability to be progressive, skilled, enlightened and academically astute contributors to their communities and society as a whole.  Email Executive Director, Daphne Valcin at daphne.valcin@inspirethemovement.org for more information!

Past YEA Programs

• 2017
  • 3/30/17
    • YEA Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at Coral Glades High School in Coral Springs, FL
  • 1/18/2017
    • YEA Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at Hallandale High School in Hallandale, FL
  • 1/11/2017
    • YEA Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at North Miami Beach Senior High School in North Miami Beach, FL
  • 1/6/2017
    • Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C.
•  2016
  •  12/15/2016
    • YEA Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at North Miami Beach Senior High School in North Miami Beach, FL
  • 11/20/2016
    • YEA Program focused on college preparation, career preparation, life skills, and self/community empowerment at Palm Beach Youth Academy in West Palm Beach, FL
  • 1/13/2016
    • YEA Program focused on professional etiquette and college retention at Place of Hope in Boca Raton, FL
•  2015
  • 11/5/2014 – 2/18/2015
    • YEA Program focused on personal, educational, and entrepreneurial development with a significant emphasis on dance at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Riviera Beach, FL
•  2014
  • 11/7/2014
    • Keynote speech about college, career and personal development for Boys & Girls Club Keystone Club at Lester H. White Club in Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • 10/10/2014
    • Presentation on College, Career, Life Skills, and Self & Community Empowerment at Roosevelt Middle School in West Palm Beach, FL
  •  10/10/2014
    • College and Career Presentation at Boys and Girls Club of Broward County Stephanis Club in Pompano Beach, FL
  •  10/1/2014
    • College and Career Presentation at Boys and Girls Club of Broward County Moran Club in Deerfield Beach, FL
  • 6/25/2014
    • Suited 4 Success: Polished & Empowered Summer Performing Arts Camp “Dance for Life: Moving forward for self and others” workshop
  • 2/25/2014 – 05/20/2014
    • Empowerment and performing arts program at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C.
• 2013
  • 9/28/2013 – 10/12/2013
    • Worthy Girls, Worthy Lives empowerment and performing arts program culminating in end-of-program performance in Baltimore, MD
  • 6/29/2013
    • Empowerment workshop at Girl You Are Amazing conference in Port St. Lucie, FL
  • 3/28/2013
    • Arts & Activism workshop at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, VA
  • 3/15/2013
    • RAREssence workshop on individual and group empowerment in Fort Washington, MD
• 2012
  • 10/12/2012
    • College preparation and empowerment workshop at Largo High School in Largo, MD
• 2010
  • 3/20/2009 – 4/9/2010
    • High school and college men’s empowerment group at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA
• 2008 – 2009
  • 3/4/2008 – 4/29/2009
    • Empowerment and performing arts workshop at Garfield Terrace Apartments in Washington, D.C.
• 2006
  • 10/17/2006 – 10/19/2006
    • Empowerment and performing arts workshops in inner-city libraries in Atlanta, GA
• 2004 – 2006
  • 4/5/2004 – 5/26/2006
    • Empowerment and performing arts workshops at Phoenix Apartments in Gainesville, FL
• 2003
  • 11/19/2003 – 12/7/2003
    • Empowerment and performing arts workshops with former residents of Kennedy Homes Apartments in Gainesville, FL

YEA Performance Corps Program

Students who are invited to be a part of this 11-month program will be exposed weekly to speakers, meditation, empowerment seminars, life skills sessions, cultural awareness sessions, and social action forums to aide them in progressing in various aspects of their lives.  At the end of the program, clients’ growth will impact their ability to be progressive, skilled, enlightened, and academically astute contributors to their communities and society as a whole.

Project Inspire Program Foci

1. College and Career Preparation (Education)
   • College Preparation
   • 1:1 College Counseling
   • 1:1 Academic Mentorship
   • Career Counseling
   • Entrepreneurship
2. Life Skills
   • Finance
   • Public Speaking
   • Budgeting
3. Arts
   • Professional Mentorship
   • Professional Instruction
   • Dance – Hip-Hop, Modern, Lyrical
   • Theatre
4. Self and Community Empowerment
   • Meditation
   • Relationship Management
   • Cultural Empowerment
   • Team Building and Group Empowerment/Support
   • Community Involvement
   1. • Guest Speakers
      • Local and National History
      • Local and National Social Change Organization, Activist, and Movements Study
      • Community Service
      • Community Performance
      • Community Events Attendance