UCANN (Unified Community and Neighborhood Network)

Your Community is Waiting on You!

Has violence in the neighborhood impacted your life?
Looking for meaningful ways to help
and heal your community?
Wondering how you can make a difference?

Wonder no more. You are the change your community needs right now!

The Africentric Personal Development Shop (APDS) has been a part of the community for decades. To make sure that community is around for many decades more, we support the future of our community… Our youth

Unified Community and Neighborhood Network (UCANN)

UCANN works to stop youth-involved violence in our Columbus community. We arm our young people between the ages of 11 to 22 with the tools they need to become champions of nonviolence. Then UCANN participants use those tools to help create vibrant, safe, and innovative communities.

UCANN programs include

  • Civic Engagement
  • Community Service
  • Group Outings
  • Networking opportunities
  • Summer Programs with Compensation.

What's Included

UCANN SERVE

UCANN LEAD

• For ages 11 to 13
• Civic engagement
• Mentorship

•  For ages 14 to 17
•  Leadership Development
•  Youth Empowerment and Inspiration

UCANN SERVE

• For ages 11 to 13
• Civic engagement
• Mentorship

UCANN LEAD

•  For ages 14 to 17
•  Leadership Development
•  Youth Empowerment and Inspiration

In summer 2021, UCANN launched a two-phase youth engagement approach.

Phase One: The Toolkit

Phase TWO: Tools in Action

  • Weekly toolkit workshops for young people.
  • APDS issues laptops so all par cipants have equal access to programming and networking.
  • Youth take inventory of their existing skills.
  • Youth receive new tools to champion nonviolence
  • Random urine checks.
  • Workshops focus on key topics:
  • Nonviolent Communication
  • Bystander Intervention
  • Financial Empowerment
  • Mental Health Awareness
  • Social Media As A Tool For Advocacy
  • Applied skills gained from the toolkit workshops.
  • Brainstormed innovative ways to address youth-involved violence in our community.
  • A ended various community events centered around reducing violence.
  • Assisted in developing four community centered initiatives.

Phase One: The Toolkit

•  Weekly toolkit workshops for young people.
•  APDS issues laptops so all par cipants have equal access to programming and networking.
•  Youth take inventory of their existing skills.
•  Youth receive new tools to champion nonviolence
•  Workshops focus on key topics:
•   Nonviolent Communication
•   Bystander Intervention
•   Financial Empowerment
•   Mental Health Awareness
•   Social Media As A Tool For Advocacy

Phase TWO: Tools in Action

•  Weekly toolkit workshops for young people.
•  APDS issues laptops so all par cipants have equal access to programming and networking.
•  Youth take inventory of their existing skills.
•  Youth receive new tools to champion nonviolence
•  Workshops focus on key topics:
•   Nonviolent Communication
•   Bystander Intervention
•   Financial Empowerment
•   Mental Health Awareness
•   Social Media As A Tool For Advocacy

• Applied skills gained from the toolkit workshops.
• Brainstormed innovative ways to address youth-involved violence in our community.
• A ended various community events centered around reducing violence.
• Assisted in developing four community centered initiatives.

UCANN By The Numbers

50+ Active Participants

  • 15 community clean-up and mentorship participants
  • 15 Junior Leadership Cohort members.
  • 23 Youth Leadership Cohort members.

38 Laptops to Tackle Technology Barriers

  • Technology access reported as a major issue for more than half of UCANN participants.
  • 38 laptops provided to UCANN participants to address the tech issue.
  • Unused laptops to become part of a larger community effort for greater technology access called UCANN Connect

4 Community Initiatives Developed

  • UCANN Youth and Family Resource Fair.
  • Driving Park Social Justice Collaborative.
  • Annual Driving Park National Night Out.
  • UCANN Connect.

26 Community Service Hours

  • Community clean-ups in the Driving Park area
  • Star House dona on collec on for youth experiencing homelessness.
  • Mid-Ohio Foodbank shopper assistance.

25 Toolkit Workshop Hours

  • Weekly workshops with community youth.
  • 15 Junior Leadership Cohort members.
  • Educational workshops offer tools for nonviolence championship.

Your Community Needs You!

Be a part of our community’s solution. Register for UCANN.

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TESTIMONIALS

“It feels good to give back to my community, learn, make friends, and be able to make money. I don’t usually have time to do things like UCANN because I'm busy looking to make money to take care of myself. I think it’s cool that UCANN understands that kids need money too. Some of us really have to work to eat.”

18-year-old participant

"UCANN gives me a safe place to hang out with people and learn how to be a champion of nonviolence. We need more programs like UCANN if we want violence to go down in our city.”

13-year-old participant

“We need more programs like UCANN. If we had more things like this for kids to do things would be safer for us…I am happy I joined. UCANN gave me something positive to do.”

14-year-old participant

Recent research shows, the highest group among homicide
victims are young adults and adolescents. The time
is now to act on improving the conditions
in which our youth are subject.

Play your part in providing the highest quality of life for our youth.

DONATE to APDS UCANN