Josiah Kopp
The Legacy Children’s Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, established in 2011 by Fargo teenagers with the goal to provide educational support and opportunities for impoverished teens. This nonprofit was birthed and led by vulnerable youth striving to become educated leaders and productive citizens. Thanks to this organization, Fargo secondary school students in grades 6th to 12th can receive after-school resources, service-learning, leadership training, career exposure and personal care to help find their niche in the world.
Legacy Children’s Foundation works with diverse teenagers to provide academic support, emotional encouragement and real-world experiences through job shadowing, community service and meaningful rewards. They are proud to be a hand UP organization, not a hand OUT one. They acknowledge that the opportunities they help with are all earned by the participating students, allowing a level playing field to be achieved by teens with, otherwise, limited resources to excel.
From its beginnings, Legacy Children’s Foundation has grown from just 11 students to an enrollment of 80 today. Their service-learning has expanded from one monthly project to more than seven. 100% of students who stayed active in Legacy Children’s Foundation programming graduated with their peers. This growth and these statistics go to show just how needed this type of organization is in our community.
Legacy Children’s Foundation teaches young people in our community to develop a mindset of “anything is possible” and embraces an attitude of gratitude by loving and serving our neighbors.
How to Help
In order for Legacy Children’s Foundation to keep doing what they are doing, they need the help of the community. Executive Director Mary Jean Dehne said, “The gift of presence inspires students to see our community values them. The gift of financial presents allows the work of educating young people to be leaders and productive citizens to continue.” Whether your support is financial or relationship-based, your help to Legacy Children’s Foundation will allow them to continue to lead service-learning projects and youth-led fundraisers in the community.
Without Legacy Children’s Foundation, our community’s vulnerable teens would not have the free resource that leads them to be productive members of society. Instead of desperately trying to find their way at the expense of the community, these youth now have healthy skills to carry with them throughout their adulthood.
Legacy Children’s Foundation
legacychildrensfoundation.com
