Breakfast serves confidence for young women
by Terrance Kelly
“Young women face a lot of issues today, such as the image they project, the type of people they interact with, and so much more,” said Noni Keyton, founder and CEO of Know Your Worth Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization for girls, speaking at Saturday’s Not By Bread Alone Breakfast, held at Church of Christ at Bouldercrest. “This is an organization where girls can be girls, without being chastised or criticized.”
In 2006, Keyton put action behind her words and organized the VENT-AGE SOCIETY for girls who are ages 12–20. The organization now has 15 members and is working with a new group doing service projects before their next winter crossing ceremony.
“This is the age when you need to vent,” she began. “I’m very big on positively letting out your anxiety, because eventually it affects those around you. Young people are stressed. Girls and boys are going through stages. What I realized is that girls are very hard on each other, even when they are playing. They have things going on at home, at school, and they’re confused. Many times a lot of parents are too busy. Some work at night and have to leave a teenage daughter home alone or to care for younger siblings. So that was the motivation for VENT-AGE SOCIETY,” Keyton said.
To become a member, a young woman must become involved in a service project. “The last project was Hosea Feed the Homeless,” Keyton said. “We find that when you do for others, you feel better about yourself.”
The young women are also exposed to etiquette, grooming and relationship dynamics. “We also try to take them to places they may not have been before, such as nice restaurants and even on picnics,” Keyton said. “I had one girl to tell me she’d never been on a picnic.”
Know Your Worth also publishes VENT-AGE PRESS. To date, there are four issues and more than 15,000 copies have been distributed. The quarterly publication addresses topics teens are facing today, such as sex, drugs, relationships, and issues with adults and more.
“We tell them to write about whatever is going on today. Just write it and we’ll edit it. It’s for everybody. Teens write it, but we also have adults reading it,” Keyton explained.
“The paper is a great outlet for teens,” she continued. “Writing about experiences can be therapeutic, rewarding and encouraging to others. Sometimes the paper is edgy. Teens don’t read newspapers as it is, so some of the things we publish may offend someone because teens are going through some deep stuff, and we don’t turn from serious issues.”
Some challenges teens face are explored in-depth at the foundation’s quarterly rap sessions held on the campuses of area colleges, including Georgia State University and Clark Atlanta University. In July, the foundation is sponsoring a new program, A Better Life, A Better Me: Character Building Workshop, at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta.
“We try to make the sessions educational, empowering and entertaining,” Keyton emphasized. “Our last session had over 100 girls, and there was a mixture of college and high school students. We’ve also had an HIV presentation at one session, and many girls left saying ‘I didn’t know that.’ So they always leave the session with something.”
At the rap sessions, participants are encouraged to speak freely on a selected topic because, Keyton said, too many young women feel they are not being heard or being trusted.
She explained, “We have girls who complain about their mother’s being hypocrites. They drink and smoke, or they have a man living in the house, but they are not married, and tell their daughters not to do these things. Girls are looking at women and picking up cues. They watch how you dress, how you interact with people, or they’re watching the girl down the street whose mother is always at work, and she’s doing whatever she wants.”
“Getting to experience different places, interacting with different people and having an outlet where you’re not judged by what you think or don’t agree with were benefits to me,” said Kimaya Jones, 17, a founding member of the VENT-AGE SOCIETY. She’s a graduate of South Cobb High School and will begin her freshman year at Hampton University in the fall.
New member Janesa Frazier, 16, attends DeKalb County’s Columbia High School. “I enjoy the freedom to say what you want in the newspaper and even the process of getting into the society,” she said. “It all helps you become grounded and to find your self-worth.”
For those who are not able to join an organization like the VENT-AGE SOCIETY, Keyton advised, “Try your church, and be honest with yourself about why you’re searching. Being shy about what you really want will not allow others to help you.”
Keyton said the foundation’s goal is to build new ways of thinking, for girls to be more analytical and to have more self-discipline. She added, “There are a lot of negative things that can happen when you don’t think before you act.”
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