Jowan Smith has her teenage son to thank for her "a-ha" moment.
A few years ago, the single mother noticed Trayvon watching a YouTube video to learn how to tie a tie.
"I'm thinking to myself, I know he's not the only kid that does not know this," she said.
She wondered how many other boys and young men, especially those in the inner city, had not been exposed to simple job readiness and life skills, such as tying a tie.
"A tie might seem simple, but it's the starting point of dressing, interviewing, communicating and networking," she said.
That realization led Smith to create 1,000 Ties, which offers workshops where community mentors teach males ages 6 to 21 not only how to tie a newly acquired tie, but also proper dress, grooming, written and verbal skills, and "the art of being a gentleman," as Smith describes it.
On Feb. 27, Smith presented her 1,000 Ties concept at the sixth annual Accelerate: Citizens Make Change civic pitch competition presented by the Cleveland Leadership Center and Citizens Bank.
I was on the judging panel that heard Smith make her initial pitch in the competition's Community Change category, where five people came with great ideas to make life better here. All were inspiring, but Smith's was awe-inspiring.
She pitched with passion and she made it clear that the path out of poverty started with preparing kids to travel it. She also announced that she'd already expanded her idea to include sessions for girls — tie-tying, presumably, not included. And she'd established a partnership with the Cleveland Public Library to host her curriculum.
She blew the panel away, and we unanimously decided to send Smith to the final round, where she competed with five other presenters, with the audience of 600 attendees ultimately selecting her as the winner of the $5,000 top prize.
"I was so overcome with emotion when I won because it's for these kids I fight so hard for," she said.
Smith saw firsthand the impacts of generational poverty while working for five years as a caseworker in the Cuyahoga County welfare department. Much of her passion behind 1,000 Ties is her desire to help people break the cycle of poverty.
"We break that cycle by teaching them the skills so they can walk into the door and get those jobs or get into that school or get that scholarship," she told me.
The single mother of two who grew up in Cleveland knows how important a bright postsecondary future is for youth to break the generational cycle of poverty, whether through college, trade school, the military or full-time employment. In addition to running 1,000 Ties, Smith is the founder and CEO of Getting Our Babies to College 101, a consulting firm that works with parents and students on how to ready their children for college, apply for financial aid, find scholarships, plan a college visit and fill out an application.
1,000 Ties seemed like a natural outgrowth of the work Smith was doing with Getting Our Babies to College 101 in preparing the future generation for success. It's about teaching the proper skills to advance in life but also creating mentorship opportunities within the business community.
There has been a lot of talk in this community about overcoming the crushing poverty that grips so much of our city. Jowan Smith is doing something about it.
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March 08, 2020 at 03:00PM
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Breaking the poverty cycle one tie at a time - Crain's Cleveland Business
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