Show Me the Way Inc. Exclusive Interview with President & Founder Tashawnya Menefee!

Question. What would your response be if I told you a Crim High graduate whose mother dealt with substance abuse went on to a productive college graduate? Would you believe me if I told you that they went on to complete professional schooling and worked for the Center of Disease Control and started their own non profit organization?

Last one, how would you respond if I told you Cynthia Bailey, Big Boi, Jermaine Dupri, Chili, Tiny Harris, Nivea and company were all attendees of an event that’s a product of their dedication?

Need I mention numerous accolades including one by the FLOTUS and Barack Obama. Tashawnya Menefee, President/Founder of Show me the Way Foundation Inc.

Tashawnya and I sat down to talk about Show me the Way Foundation in East Atlanta across the street from Cynthia Baileys new studio.

Tashawnya, tell BCG reader’s about yourself.

Tashawnya: “My name is Tashawnya  Menefee, President/Founder of Show me the Way Foundation. Show me the Way Foundation is a local Atlanta non profit organization. We’ve been around since 2006. Our focus is helping kids in the community that are affected/infected with HIV. We have programs like SHE Girls and HOLLA BACK BOYS programs. We also do high school tours, we educate about 5,000 kids within the school system. We have annual event’s such as our RUNWAY RED Fashion Show, which is why I think you’re here today”.

“RUNWAY RED is one of our biggest events, it brings out of community leaders. We educate kids about safe sex education. We educate them on them about the risk factors about becoming a teenage parent at an early age, becoming HIV infected and having and STD period. We love what we do in the community and we’re going to educate kids on safe sex”.

Tell me more about how you started Show me the Way Foundation. We talked about the difficulties of growing up and not having mentors and your work with the CDC. Is that what drove you to start a non-profit?

After being at the CDC I really became passionate about kids with HIV because that was my department. There were kids and adults affected by tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and my passion grew even stronger. I’ve been mentoring kids since I was a kid. I thank God, he infused it all with me working and doing my public health work with the CDC. Learning about the high rates of AIDS/HIV. SEEING how it’s taking over our community in Atlanta. It’s sad seeing a a teenage child be told that their infected by HIV/AIDS… its like what do you do. I’m a certified HIV tester where I can go out and test, I have to be the burden of bad news giving the teens their results. It’s an important factor here in Atlanta, how dare we be here in Atlanta and not give back to the community. I have a 13 year old! I refuse to let my daughter grow up  and have HIV to look forward to. No way. We’re not doing that.

BCG What can the Community do to help out with the AIDS campaign?

Tashawnya: That’s a really good question, I’m glad you asked that. We have our RED campaign.

R-Realizing. We’ve got to get the parent’s to realize this is a serious issue here in Atlanta. Realize the fact that HIV is taking over our youth and the community.

E–Educate. We need to get parent’s and teens educated on the risk factors that’s associated with having unprotected sex. Get them educated, get them educated, get them educated!

D-Development. We need more parents and more community leaders to develop a plan to get Georgia off the high list of HIV carriers. Georgia is number eight. We’re almost down to number seven number six. If we keep this pattern up, we’re on our to being as high as California. We need people to develop a plan, get involved. It starts in your homes. Educating your kids and developing a way for them to take it serious. It’s like a domino effect.

BCG: I have three baby sister’s and at some point I had to have a talk with them because I didn’t know nor did I feel comfortable asking if my parent’s had a talk with them. It’s hard and can be awkward to talk about sex with kids. Part of what Show Me The Way does is successfully addressing the issue.

Tashawyna: I know. I know!

It’s a long term goal for us to be a household name where we have after school programs. We want to be that after school program that’s totally focused on sex education. Just think if your kids were participating in an after school program about sex education versus when they get out of school when mom and dad aren’t home they go straight to the TV  or straight to the Internet. They go straight into getting into things they shouldn’t be doing. We have more positive programs and with the money we’ve raised from our programs we’re striving to keep kids out of doing things they shouldn’t be doing.

We have our Cool High School Tours. Where So So Def Jermaine Dupri, he’s one of the ambassadors for the programs and he has been so helpful. We use the cool trends. We warm the kids up with the hip hop factor and they feel like “‘okayyy…. well I can talk about”‘ in a room full of people. We use the Cool trends and hip hop factors of the day to help educate the kids. With good enough funding I know Show Me The Way Foundation is on a good enough roll on to helping the kids be more educated on AIDS/HIV. Sometimes the parents don’t know how to do it or they don’t have time to do it, but if they’re putting their kids in these after school programs they’re winning. You can’t lose with that.

BCG: Tell us a little more about the Cool High School Tours

Tashawnya: It’s like a pep rally. We get the whole school involved. It’s  a pep rally where speakers show up. We have Fulton County Health Educators that show up and they educate kids about safe sex. We have performances, everything geared about safe sex. Unfortunately the President took out abstinence. So therefore there’s no funding for abstinence anymore….. We need to talk to kids about safe sex, don’t get pregnant, don’t bring home any sexually transmitted diseases. That’s pretty much what the tours are about. We have amazing sponsors who give out goody bags to the kids. Our educators come in with the red bottom shoes on with the hats, the chains. They look so regular and its amazing how the kids warm up. Who are some of the people that come to help with the Cool Tour? Fulton County Health Department.We partner with other organizations to give cool information to the kids. We can’t do it alone and we incorporate other organizations that want to be a part and help educate the kids. We also have a workshop that we do. It’s called Karma, show me Carma. Carma is about don’t go chasing water falls. Stick to the rivers and lakes that you’re used to. It’s about teaching kids karma, you put good out you’re going to get good in. If you’re out there being bad and sloppy with you’re sexual behavior and this is what it can lead to (sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, etc). We give them scenarios and scripts, it can be embarrassing but they end up having a good time.

RUNWAY RED Show Me the Way Foundation Inc.

A Special thanks to Gregg Williams of Rolls Royce of Atlanta for mentoring and being a catalyst of her success and drive.

BCG: Tell me a little more about the people that help put this together..

Its great to have Charlene Bastien. They will be sponsoring our high school tours as well. We linked up with African Pride Dream Kids by way of the Cole Gardner Circle. They’re actually representatives of Dream Kids and I guess they were looking for cool ways to launch their big product dream kids. So Nicole Gardner referred us.

BCG: What advice do you have for people that are looking to start non profits in either their hometowns or their new home residence?

Really be serious about. Whatever your passionate is be serious about….feeding the hungry, working with kids, mentoring kids, planting trees and plants be serious about it. Sit and think about. Put your vision on paper. Get together all your ideas, think all your programs out. Make sure you look really good on paper and everything else will follow. The funding will start to follow and if you start building good programs that effect the people in communities. Once you do that people will start donating when they see you’re serious about your non profit.

BCG: Frank Ski said all his trips and programs in his non profits are built around what he likes to do and that in part makes them so successful, does that idea parallel with you?

Tashawnya: I walked away from corporate America and I’m working with my full time passion. It is amazing when you can do something you love to do.. You have to have a lot of skills to do a lot of things with your non profit organization. It requires all the day to day 9-5 corporate jobs to your non profit. One of the down falls of starting a non profit is finding funding for yourself and sometimes you might not be funded at all. Sometimes it may be a thing where you’re stepping out on faith and giving it your all; like I said if you’re serious about it and you keep at it the funding will come. God will put things in faith.

BCG : August 11th RunWay Red, What are you looking forward to the most?

Tashawnya: I’m looking forward to the kids being excited about the venue. I’m all about my kids, I’m all about my supporters and the community that comes out. I want them to be so excited about this show. I’m really excited that Show me The Way Foundation will be honored this year with a proclamation. Michael Julian Bond Council Man will be out to present Show me the Way Foundation, Cynthia Bailey, and African Pride Dream Kids with a proclamation (she laughs). I’m so excited about that this entire event falls on my birthday so I work so hard and to have the city of Atlanta acknowledge Show me the Way Foundation and RunWay Red as a community event is going to be amazing. I’m going to try not to cry but its so amazing to have the city of Atlanta recognize your work. Most importantly I’m looking forward to the kids walking down that run way and delivering that message about RED (REALIZING, EDUCATING AND DEVELOPING a plan). I’m excited about them being excited. It’s going to be amazing this year.

BCG: Who are your biggest supporters with Show Me the Way Foundation?
Tashawnya: I would say my mentor Gregg Williams General manager of Rolls Royce Atlanta. It’s been my friends and my family, Bank of America. It’s been the school systems and my executive board. We are a tight family, the school systems believed in Show me The Way every bit of the way. United We Serve, we got exposure to Barack Obama because of United We Serve. We’ve had a lot of cool supporters. From a financial stand point Bank of America has definitely been there for us every bit of the way. One Stop Production has been amazing. The radio stations. Everyone has been so amazing.

BCG: Celebrities have acknowledged, prominent members of Atlanta are excited about it, I’m excited about it. Being a kid and growing into yourself and dealing with growing pains and then you have RUNWAY RED to look forward to is something special to say the least. Flashing Camera’s, Boosting their self esteem, and giving them confidence and this is heavily supported by sponsorships. Do you want to talk about them?

Tashawnya: Our Sponsors are African Pride Dream Kids. They’re actually one of our title sponsors for this year. One Stop Production, Chris Ruffin. Chris does the day to day operations. He’s the one that will be creating this beautiful atmosphere. V103 is another one of our proud sponsors. We have a new sponsor in Mr. Juan Crowley. Green Grease is a fantastic company.  They’re going to be on board in a major way. Green Grease is a recycling company for grease. People never know what to do with their grease after they fry their chicken and it’s just sitting there. We have the YMCA, the YMCA is a proud sponsor. We thank Cynthia Bailey and lending her name and helping us get our kids together during our casting. Rick of Diversified Electronic will supply the air conditioning for the event. Mr. Devon will be over the photography.

Our team is amazing. We have Christal Jordan who is with Enchanted PR. Angela Watts she’s with ADW media group, she’s actually producing the show this year. We have Robert Flood with Style Sessions and Bisconi, they’re the stylist for the show. We Latonya Pouncer that’s doing all the volunteering. She’s the volunteer coordinating. We have Ronnie with Sky 12 Media, he’s doing the celebrity wrangling and marketing for the show. We have Bonnie who’s helping with our sponsoring for the show this year.

It’s crazy I’ve never been so excited about seeing my birthday come. I’m full of excitement. I get to see my babies, I get to spend time with my parents, that’s when I spend a lot of time with kids and parents.

We’ll bring you details on RunWay Red Soon!!!!!!