Educate843

✅ July 2026 didn't disappoint for Team E3 👏🏾📚🖤
Kicking it off at with Black Voters Matter Fund and wrapping up with an advocacy-packed, resource-filled three days at with Partnership for Southern Equity, we centered love, liberation, and learning in every single engagement.

From NOLA to ATL to CHS, new connections, longtime supporters, and strategic growth partners made it a month worthy of celebration, helping to extend E3 Foundation's reach and impact across the South while nurturing the brilliance and beauty of young Scholars here at home.

We're gearing up for a student and family-focused month ahead, packed with Back to School resource festivals, education advocacy convenings, and community-wide outreach—be sure to stop by if you see Team E3! 👋🏿❤️📚

Our guest readers are a tremendous source of encouragement, affirmation, and inspiration for our Scholars, and this summer has served up day after day of role-model readers! Thank you Tiffany Spann-Wilder for blessing our young learners with your presence, power, and passion for community. The E3 Foundation and Jenkins Youth and Family Village Freedom Team appreciates you 👏🏾📚🤿⭐️

Freedom Schools Spotlight | Celebrating Kendrick R. Brown, Sr., Site Leader 🖤

Every summer, something extraordinary happens at Jenkins Youth and Family Village.

Children arrive carrying different stories, different experiences, and different dreams. Six weeks later, they leave carrying something more: confidence, belonging, joy, and a deeper understanding of who they are—and who they’re becoming.

Helping guide that journey is our 2026 Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools® Site Leader, Kendrick R. Brown, Sr.
. . . .

For Kendrick, Freedom Schools has never been limited to six weeks of summer. It’s about supporting Scholars and Servant Leaders on pathways to power, purpose, and presence.

“We start with making a difference in ourselves. Then our families. Then our communities. By the time we talk about changing our country or the world, our Scholars understand they already have everything they need to begin.”

That journey isn’t about overwhelming our people with the weight of the world. It’s about helping them understand that meaningful change begins much closer to home.

“We’re hoping they are the advocates. I’m hoping that they go home and speak about what they’re learning in Freedom Schools. That’s impacting the world right there. That’s the change that’s needed.”

Kendrick believes every Scholar has the ability to shape the culture around them—not someday, but today.

“You create the culture you’re living in. What we see in society could be negative, but in places like Freedom Schools we have a chance to reflect the positives and the possibilities, and to get these students to actually see what it looks like to be the best versions of themselves.”

It’s why he believes so deeply in the Freedom Team model. Every Servant Leader Intern and Junior Servant Leader Intern becomes living proof of what’s possible, inspiring today’s Scholars to become tomorrow’s mentors.

“We want our Scholars to become Junior Servant Leader Interns. We want them to become Servant Leader Interns who come back and give. Imagine how powerful our leaders could be if every Scholar followed that pipeline. That could make the difference in a multitude of communities.”

For Kendrick, that’s the true meaning of legacy.

“Legacy is finding someone who’s maybe not finished their work completely, picking up where they left off, and then being willing to do the work yourself until it’s your turn to pass it to someone else.”

This summer, that legacy lives in every read-aloud, every encouraging conversation, every Harambee circle, every Servant Leader, every Scholar, and every family who finds freedom on the grounds of Jenkins Youth & Family Village.

. . . .

E3 Foundation and Jenkins Youth & Family Village are deeply grateful for Kendrick’s leadership—and for every Servant Leader, Junior Servant Leader, volunteer, Read Aloud guest, community partner, and sponsor who helps ensure our Scholars know they are brilliant, capable, deeply loved, and destined to make a difference.
Because today’s Scholars become tomorrow’s leaders, rooted and rising together for a stronger future.

#29405

⭐️ Happy Intern Appreciation Week to our incredible 2026 Freedom Team! ⭐️

This summer, our CDF Freedom Schools® Servant Leader and Junior Servant Leader Interns have done so much more than lead classrooms.

They’ve become trusted mentors.
They’ve celebrated every breakthrough.
They’ve encouraged every hesitant reader.
They’ve danced during Harambee, shared stories that affirm identity, answered hard questions, offered listening ears, and reminded our Scholars—day after day—that they are brilliant, capable, and deeply loved.

This Freedom Team represents the very future we’re working to build.

They are college students and high school students who have chosen to spend their summer investing in the next generation—showing our Scholars what leadership, compassion, excellence, and community look like in action.

Every read-aloud.
Every encouraging word.
Every game, conversation, hug, high five, and moment of patience matters.

Because Freedom Schools aren’t only transforming our Scholars—they’re cultivating a growing generation of educators, advocates, mentors, and servant leaders who will continue carrying this work forward for years to come.

To every SLI and JSLI on the E3 Foundation at Jenkins Youth & Family Village 2026 Freedom Team:
👏🏾 Miss Lashay
👏🏾 Mr. Z
👏🏾 Ms. Jé
👏🏾 Mr. R
👏🏾 Miss Jada
👏🏾 Mr. D
👏🏾 Mr. Nick
👏🏾 Ms. Marley
👏🏾 Mr. K
👏🏾 Miss Ary

🖤Thank you.

Thank you for answering the call.
Thank you for believing in our Scholars.
Thank you for helping them discover the joy of learning, the power of their voices, and the strength of their roots.

You are helping build a future where every generation rises stronger than the last.

Join us in celebrating these remarkable young leaders with a shoutout below! ❤️🖤💚

⚠️Community Update⚠️
Freedom Schools Resource Night Rescheduled for Heat Advisory

Due to today's extreme heat advisory, we have made the decision to reschedule this year’s Freedom Schools Community Resource Night, originally planned for today, Wednesday, July 8th.

To our dedicated Scholar families, community partners, and 29405 neighbors—thank you for your understanding and for continuing to celebrate and strengthen one another!

We are deeply grateful for each of you, and hope that if you will instead consider joining us for our Freedom Schools Grand Finale!

📅 Wednesday, July 22, 2026
🕛 12:00–3:00 PM
📍 Jenkins Youth & Family Village

Our Grand Finale is one of the most joyful days of the summer—a celebration of our Scholars’ growth, creativity, leadership, and accomplishments throughout the Freedom Schools experience.

Families, neighbors, partners, and supporters come together to honor what our young people have achieved, and community partners will join in to share the valuable programs, opportunities, and access originally planned for Resource Night!

Together, we’re strengthening community—one family, one Scholar, and one partner at a time. 💛

#29405