The Keys To Successful EntrepreneurshiPThis 6-part workshop series is designed to help you as business leaders and entrepreneurs, acquire the insight and tools you’ll need to enhance your small businesses, intrapreneurship ventures, or social entrepreneurship initiatives.
Key Takeaways This program will enable you to:
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MEET THE FACILITATORS
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Crystal Davis is a multidisciplinary and mixed media performance artist, poet, painter, freelance
writer, editor, and social media marketer. She was born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey and is the author and creator at Crystal Letters (CL), and the Co-Founder and Co-Producer of OpenRoad Poetry (ORP), an artistic partnership between CL and RescuePoetix TM. Her art and writing projects, CL and ORP, have collaborated with arts non-profit organizations and artists across the Tri-State area, nationally, and internationally. Her work is inspired by nature, color, and the utilization of practical craft through art in the visual and written form. Web: www.crystalletters.com FB: www.facebook.com/Crystalletters/ IG: @crystallettersofficial |
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Edwin Santana
Besides my commitment to servicing communities most impacted by mass incarceration, I have great energy and possess remarkable skills which I have acquired through the years as a spoken word performer, actor, facilitator, presenter, advocate, community organizer, as well as a writer, filmmaker, director and film editor. I served 24 years in prison and while I was there I volunteered to learn how to become a facilitator through programs such as Alternatives to Violence Program (AVP), Aggression Replacement Training (ART), Prisoners for AIDS Counseling and Education (PACE), as well as a Teacher’s Assistant (TA). I also learned about the film/broadway industry by being an active member of the program Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA). Through my years spent inside, I facilitated many groups of individuals until my release in 2017. |
Since I came home, I managed to maintain jobs that allowed me to showcase many of the skills I acquired throughout my incarceration. I have also met many people who have a strong commitment to social justice and the dismantling of mass incarceration. My network has assisted me in learning how to maintain a healthy lifestyle as a productive member of society. I was also offered many opportunities that others who were released from prison didn't. I was fortunate enough to learn to be a Campaign Leader/Advocate from JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA). My interest in social justice led me to join the movement to close Rikers Island in which I helped JLUSA facilitate monthly member meetings, and organize town hall meetings. They allowed me to speak to the public at rallies, protests, and social justice events. I eventually became a member/supporter of many other advocacy groups/organizations such as VOCALNY, The Fortune Society, The Osbourne Society, and an Advisory Board Member for the Riker’s Island Public Memory Project (RIPMP). However, it was my role as Community Organizer for the organization Freedom Agenda that has really defined my work.
The skills I garnered have helped me to help Freedom Agenda grow their membership by canvassing in the communities of the five boroughs of NYC. I continue to organize meetings, facilitating and educating our members about City Council hearings, bills we support to decarcerate New York, and many other job descriptions that concern computer duties, public speaking and testifying at city council hearings. The great part about what I do is that I get to be around many individuals who are also doing amazing work in the community. This led me to learn how to interview people, which led me to film, which then led me to edit and start my own business called TUFF ART MEDIA. I have created my own show called The Check In (among other great video material) which can be seen on my YouTube channel. (Links are in my resume). In my spare time I facilitate classes on poetry and editing with an app named Powerdirector.
The skills I garnered have helped me to help Freedom Agenda grow their membership by canvassing in the communities of the five boroughs of NYC. I continue to organize meetings, facilitating and educating our members about City Council hearings, bills we support to decarcerate New York, and many other job descriptions that concern computer duties, public speaking and testifying at city council hearings. The great part about what I do is that I get to be around many individuals who are also doing amazing work in the community. This led me to learn how to interview people, which led me to film, which then led me to edit and start my own business called TUFF ART MEDIA. I have created my own show called The Check In (among other great video material) which can be seen on my YouTube channel. (Links are in my resume). In my spare time I facilitate classes on poetry and editing with an app named Powerdirector.
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Reverend Isaac I. Scott is a Multidisciplinary Visual Artist, Journalist, and Ordained Minister, who created Isaac's Quarterly, a socially concerned faith-based company to provide and foster culturally representative aesthetics. Isaac has an Associates degree in computer networking technologies from Taylor Business Institute and a Bachelors degree in visual arts from the School of General Studies at Columbia University. Isaac is formerly the Associate Pastor of God’s Touch Healing Ministry, currently serves as a Community Partner minister at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church, NYC, serves on the U.S. Prisons Program Advisory Council for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and has founded a consulting ministry to enhance the community engagement efforts of faith-based initiatives.
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Rev. Isaac is the Chairperson for the Human Services Committee for Manhattan Community Board 11, which advocates for community equity for East Harlem, El Barrio, Spanish Harlem, Randall’s Island, and Ward’s Island.
He is currently a Justice in Education Scholar at Columbia University and spearheads the promotion of justice reform and community enhancement through the transformative power of the arts. Rev. Isaac has written as a Columnist for the Columbia Spectator and his research at Columbia investigated social and institutional methods of dehumanization in the justice system and the role of art and popular media to decrease punitive triggers in the US criminal justice system and foster community enhancement.
Rev. Scott's passion for equal human rights runs deep, and comes as a result of being directly affected by the criminal justice system and its disenfranchising nature. Through The Confined Arts, Pastor Scott has applied a strategic arts engagement methodology to criminal justice advocacy by organizing public art projects, online art exhibitions, poetry performances, and storytelling projects to interrogate and bring about awareness around the intersecting pathways to incarceration. As a result of the impactful charitable work of The Confined Arts, Pastor Scott receives foundation support and has been awarded a historic 5 consecutive Change Agent Awards from the School of General Studies at Columbia University.
He is currently a Justice in Education Scholar at Columbia University and spearheads the promotion of justice reform and community enhancement through the transformative power of the arts. Rev. Isaac has written as a Columnist for the Columbia Spectator and his research at Columbia investigated social and institutional methods of dehumanization in the justice system and the role of art and popular media to decrease punitive triggers in the US criminal justice system and foster community enhancement.
Rev. Scott's passion for equal human rights runs deep, and comes as a result of being directly affected by the criminal justice system and its disenfranchising nature. Through The Confined Arts, Pastor Scott has applied a strategic arts engagement methodology to criminal justice advocacy by organizing public art projects, online art exhibitions, poetry performances, and storytelling projects to interrogate and bring about awareness around the intersecting pathways to incarceration. As a result of the impactful charitable work of The Confined Arts, Pastor Scott receives foundation support and has been awarded a historic 5 consecutive Change Agent Awards from the School of General Studies at Columbia University.
