Story from the Streets...

Check out what Cecilia did to start an organization to help others and how you can do it too!

"I got my friends and family to support me in doing this.  I asked them to help A LOT!"

"Talk to everyone!  The letters I sent were okay, but talking was best. Ask for donations or for any type of resource."

"Have fundraisers to get peoples' support.  We also use our fundraisers to let people in power know about our group and it is a chance for us to establish a relationship with them."

"Look for organizations affiliated with your cause to be a 'parent' organization."

"I started F.A.S.T. as a part of a local non-profit. The one thing unique about F.A.S.T., aside from being the first teen-run domestic-violence organization, we have outgrown our parent organization.

"Prepare a budget and plan of objectives and goals to present to organizations and government officials for support and finances."

"Get the media and government officials on your side."

"We want to make our connection to the people who have the power to make a difference and who are in a position to really change things, such as the Governor of our state. We got a lot of press coverage when we had a fundraiser last May that the Governor and his family came to."

"Make jobs for people to volunteer with your group: more volunteers equals more support."

"The thing about having a teen organization is that we're all going to become 20 years old eventually and we need to keep replenishing new people to run the organization. So the goal of the first generation of F.A.S.T. teens is to make the group sustainable enough so that the next generation of F.A.S.T. teens will have all the resources and information available to them to continue running F.A.S.T."