For Ebony Belt, the founder of Maryland-based nonprofit Divine by Design, success is serving disadvantaged youth by being the person she needed when she was growing up – especially when it comes to the mental health of young women.
Now, with intentions to partner with the nonprofit United Community by the end of this year, Belt hopes to bring Divine by Design’s mentoring, counseling and community service to Fairfax County.
“Nothing really prepared me for the work I do more than the personal experience itself,” Belt said.
Belt underwent a lot of trauma growing up in Maryland, leading her to drop out of high school her senior year and have her first son at age 19. But her saving grace was the grandmother who regularly took Belt to church, where she found faith and purpose. Determined to raise her son well, Belt eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in management and founded Divine by Design in 2018.
Divine by Design offers:
- Job and financial literacy training
- Parenting workshops
- A teen girls’ leadership academy
- “Glitter and Girl Talk,” a self-esteem course for Charles County Public Schools
- Mentorship opportunities for adults and young men
The nonprofit’s cornerstone, though, is providing trauma-informed mentorship to young women in the Washington area. Women ages 12 to 22 can apply for weekly individual mentorship sessions with trained volunteers, tailored to whatever issues they face. Often, that takes looking beyond their behavior to a core trauma.
“Most of the time, they’re acting out because it’s a cry for help,” Belt said.
Belt has seen a huge rise in youth mental health issues recently, which she attributes to the pandemic, gun violence and social media. During a two-week period several months ago, she said, she received three calls about suicidal teens.
“They have other dynamics at play that we didn’t have [growing up],” Belt said. “As an adult, it’s a lot for us to deal with. Imagine being 9 years old, 10 years old, when you still don’t even know how to express your feelings completely.”
One way that Belt combats this directly is through the Winning from Within Conference, which she launched last year. It’s a youth- and expert-led event with breakout sessions, panels and talks to encourage teens not to let social media define their identity in unhealthy ways.
Belt remembers one youth panel in particular in which teens talked about the difference between social media and reality. One 13-year-old girl said that she thought she was ready to use social media, but then she noticed herself regularly feeling depressed and comparing her body to the images she saw in her feed.
“Before they were done, there were tears all around,” Belt said. “We want to get kids into the room and give them a safe space to be themselves.”
Belt recently connected with United Community, a nonprofit that has served disadvantaged residents of Fairfax County for more than 50 years. She hopes to bring many of Divine by Design’s classes, group meetings and annual turkey and toy drives to United Community’s Fairfax location.
“My heart is to serve,” Belt said. “Our main goal is to make sure our youth know who they are on the inside.”
Image via Google Maps. This article was written by FFXnow’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
