Name: Candace Ford
Years in the business: 2
What is the mission of the My Innocence Never Compromised Foundation?
The mission of My I.N.C. is to give a better quality of life to underprivileged inner-city girls in the city of Houston. We are striving to teach them self-empowerment, positive self-esteem and how to achieve a positive quality of life.
How did you become involved in the program?
I linked up with Kisha Beard, who is the founder of My I.N.C. and we both had the same vision in mind. I never had self esteem issues growing up but I had a lot of friends who did and I would see how people would treat them and it made me want to help them in any way that I could. Now as an adult I have an opportunity to help the younger generations [see] that it’s not how society perceives you but about being beautiful in yourself and not about what others think is beautiful. We took that idea and started to market project Beautiful Me to the schools and other programs that need our help.
How can parents get their daughters involved in the program?
We more so give to the girls between the ages of 8 and 18 but last year we found that we needed to involve the parents a little bit more so we hosted a Thanksgiving drive where we gave to women’s shelters through turkey giveaways. This year, we are trying to partner with schools and establish programs in as many institutions that we can. We also have a college initiative where we teach them how to apply for college through scholarships and grants.
For more information, please visit www.myincfoundation.com.
