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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 and our youth.

About UCANN Program

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.

What’s Included:

UCANN programs include

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

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

  • 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

Phase TWO: Tools in Action

  • 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.

Project Stats

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.

MAKE AN APPPOINTMENT

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.

Support APDS by donating so that we can continue to provide needed services and programs to our community.

Donate Now