A Youth Empowerment Summit is underway in downtown Buffalo Friday. Erie Community College's Parenting and Pregnancy Assistance Program is hosting it at ECC's downtown campus.
Attendees range at the Summit range in age from 17 to 24. They are learning about being better parents. Shareff Ali is the emcee for the Summit. He started out by trying to get those attending motive, asking them to come up on stage inside the ECC auditorium and dance.
"It's like babies raising babies in a sense," stated Shareff Ali, Summit Emcee.
Some of those attending are already young parents.
"We want to instill to them the virtue of intention. How to be intentional parents. How to be intentional teenagers who wake up ever day with a purpose and not just waking up to survive, but know how to thrive, so that's our goal today," said Ali.
The program will help teach the youth maturity and how to deal with their children to provide better parenting.
"It's like babies raising babies in a sense," stated Ali.
ECC's Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Marsha Jackson kicked off the event. As a single mother, Jackson encouraged the youth to 'be the change agent' and never accept failure in their lives.
"You know I grew up living on welfare. I grew up not having a car in the projects, but I had to decide that I wanted a different life for myself, and the only way you do that, the way people get out of the ghetto is an education," Jackson stated.
Jackson stressed that 'education' is key to their futures. "As long as you don't have an education, don't have a job and don't have goals, someone else is going to be telling you what you can do with your life."
The Summit sessions included "Stress Less -- Laugh More" and "Taking Back What's Mine".