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Message From Our Founder & CEOJarvis R Brunson
Founder & CEO I am a product of my environment and have had to navigate challenges that many have faced in our communities today. I grew up living below the poverty line and I was raised in an impoverished community. I struggled academically and also struggled with my behavioral health. When I was in the third grade I was arrested for violence and acting out as well as bullying others. I grew up in a neighborhood filled with drugs, violence, murders, and drug dealer shootings. In short, my community struggled like so many other communities across the country. |
My parents were hard working individuals, fighting to raise their children in a society designed to ensure failure. I finally decided, after many years of struggling in school and at home, to make a positive change. In June 2003 I lost my mother and I vowed to work to better myself academically and personally. However, due to my mother’s death, I experienced a deeply depressed state and months of social isolation. What saved me was a group of passionate individuals working to help improve the lives of young people. I was introduced to a support group of my peers where we learned to express our feelings. We realized that the behavioral health system was a failing system so we pushed to create a plan designed to address the true needs of the community. This would become the first step in forming my year of resiliency.
After seeking therapy for my trauma, I was able to join my fellow peers by looking into issues affecting our community. We would go on to learn how to grow and become helpful advocates as a result of a federal funded grant and we used our voices to impact change. I would go on to create a louder voice for change, speaking on a local level then moved to the state level. Eventually, I would go on to join fifteen young adults from around the U.S to form an advisory board. This movement created a nonprofit on the national level fighting for change in a system that lost touch with the youth they were looking to support. I would blossom into a powerhouse of an advocate, ensuring young people in my community had a voice at the table and having valid input in the decision-making process affecting them. Over the last seventeen plus years, I have volunteered in my community by serving on committees, advisory boards and helping to create change in the community I once fought to get out of. I have been able to bring forth multiple ideas and initiatives and to help bring awareness to reduce stigma in underserved community. In 2020 I put forth a plan and created a nonprofit organization called Change Me Foundation. This organization will work to ensure the lives in the community matter most and we will fight on behalf individuals, families, and seniors to assist with finding or providing services to enhance the overall quality of life for everyone. As the CEO of this great organization, I welcome you with great love.
After seeking therapy for my trauma, I was able to join my fellow peers by looking into issues affecting our community. We would go on to learn how to grow and become helpful advocates as a result of a federal funded grant and we used our voices to impact change. I would go on to create a louder voice for change, speaking on a local level then moved to the state level. Eventually, I would go on to join fifteen young adults from around the U.S to form an advisory board. This movement created a nonprofit on the national level fighting for change in a system that lost touch with the youth they were looking to support. I would blossom into a powerhouse of an advocate, ensuring young people in my community had a voice at the table and having valid input in the decision-making process affecting them. Over the last seventeen plus years, I have volunteered in my community by serving on committees, advisory boards and helping to create change in the community I once fought to get out of. I have been able to bring forth multiple ideas and initiatives and to help bring awareness to reduce stigma in underserved community. In 2020 I put forth a plan and created a nonprofit organization called Change Me Foundation. This organization will work to ensure the lives in the community matter most and we will fight on behalf individuals, families, and seniors to assist with finding or providing services to enhance the overall quality of life for everyone. As the CEO of this great organization, I welcome you with great love.
