Meet Tonya Kelly M.Ed

We recently connected with Tonya Kelly M.Ed and have shared our conversation below.

Tonya , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Tonya Kelly, MEd, is the CEO/Founder of the 501c3 non-profit organization called Empower our Youth Foundation. Tonya by career is an Academic Coach at a local High School. The organization began in 2017 when her second daughter experienced being bullied till she had thoughts of suicide. With both of her daughters being bullied, and in 2019 her granddaughter was bullied, I witnessed firsthand the negative impacts, the family emotions, and experiences that damage a child’s self-esteem and quality of life. Over the past three years, Tonya has shared her testimony and served as an Anti-Bullying advocate, and Community resources advocate assisting families in officially reporting all forms of bullying to the appropriate authorities and providing bullying prevention curriculum to youth ages K-5th. Tonya found her purpose by creating an impact by bringing awareness and advocacy to the bullying crisis happening in our schools and communities. Tonya is available for educational speaking engagements.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Bullying is a pervasive age-old problem that has plagued neighborhoods, schools, and communities globally. When a youth/teen, even a young adult, finally gets the courage to share that they are being bullied the issue is met with harsh words, scared tactics, vial behaviors, and sometimes even death.

As a parent, grandparent, and teacher who watched her children and granddaughter deal with constant severe bullying. I vowed I would never want any family or youth to take their life or lose their quality of life because no one stood up and broke the stigma that is attached to sharing that you have been bullied. Bullying has long-lasting emotional effects. My family had to STAND UP and become the VOICE for youth/teens and families who deal with the daily effects bullying behavior causes such as depression, health complaints, low grades, and other negative impacts.

I struggled at first to share my own story because it was so raw and real. Every time I shared details about the imbalance of power all bullying forms has on a child and family, I was breaking that old saying, “Don’t TELL,” for the first time; I heard my VOICE, I heard my daughters’ voices, I HEARD my granddaughter VOICE saying BE the change you want to see!!!

Empower our Youth Foundation is a newly non-profit organization that was met with harsh criticism from the public on why anyone was talking about bullying. We were told it was just a child’s game and it will go away. Kids just need to deal with it. NO!!! Advocating for youth Antibullying prevention is building youth/teens strength and confidence to send a message about healthy habits we all can have when we respect each other.

Empower our Youth Foundation impacts the community by; building partnerships with community leaders, law enforcement, and educators to create positive lasting change for students.

EPIC Kids Literacy/STEM Academy is a youth Antibullying prevention program that offers youth creative arts, leadership skills, access to anti-bullying information/tools, social, emotional strategies, participate in community-give back activities, literacy, and STEM evidence-based tools to empower youth/teens who have been bullied, redirect the behaviors of youth/teens who bully along with changing mindsets to establish a vision of developing an understanding to the problem and how to stop bullying from happening.

Empower our Youth Foundation raises awareness and advocacy about our mission “BE A VOICE FOR OUR YOUTH AGAINST BULLYING,” by hosting community family-friendly experiences, hosting yearly fashion shows, and educational Girl & Boy Empowerment events to promote physical and emotional wellness of the youth and family.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Empower our Youth Foundation enjoys networking, engaging and encourage the community to stand up against bullying. Finding a mentor is reaching out to adult or someone you admire but don’t know very well. This gives you an opportunity to discuss where you are and where you are going in life, business, health, and work. What has worked for me in finding a mentor is sending a short email discussing a few things about myself, why I am reaching out, and what I would like to learn from them. Suggest where you could possibly meet to chat, then provide your contact information. If you have a digital business card, send the information to your possible mentor this will also serve as an icebreaker when you both meet. If you do meet make sure you follow up and send a Thank you note. Networking is interesting because you have the potential to meet new people and potential clients that can inspire you to share your story and the impact you are making in the community that can formally build relationships to invest in your services and offerings.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Bullying is a significant problem that is experienced worldwide. Bullying has become a crisis that affects millions of youth/teens and even young adults each year. An estimated 10%-30% of students involved directly and indirectly in bullying have left an oppressive negative outcome. Over the past two years Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Columbus Urban League and MBAC Columbus has provided me opportunity to develop leadership skills, essential financial literacy skills, and business education to help develop and grow my minority-owned business in Columbus. Our organization continues to see how bullying behavior puts both student victims and the bullies themselves at risk for self-harm, violence, truancy, depression, suicide and in a few cases life long social/emotional problems. All three of the organizations impacted my business to immediately to provide important services to strengthen, help me identify other businesses in my network to cultivate our growth and sustainability. Empower or Youth Foundation has been committed to tackling several fronts, including teaching educators how to have a positive school culture, family engagement and comprehensive approach. We launched EPIC Kids Literacy/STEM Academy in December 2022. The Academy offers youth grades K-5th including a Bullying and Social/ emotional learning curriculum to incorporate healthy living and inclusion for all youth. EPIC Kids Academy consists of meeting the needs of our vulnerable students. Youth involved in our programming made friends, faced adversity positively, grew in resilience, and solved social problems to become Empowered Leaders in their community.

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