Women Warriors for Change
We encourage young women to participate in the rigors of training and competition in combat sports, with the goal of empowering women.
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mr.
First name
Carlos
Last name
Fausto Miranda
Your job title
This field has not been completed
Name of your organization
Young Tigers Foundation
Organization type
Non-profit corporation
Annual budget/currency
167,183
Location
Project Street Address
5660 SW 102 Ave 2nd Floor
Project City
Miami
Project Province/State
FL
Project Postal/Zip Code
33172
Project Country
United States
Your idea
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Martial Arts
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Services
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2003
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Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Social stigmas and prohibitions
Insight
Make the first step easier
This field has not been completed.
Name Your Project
Women Warriors for Change
Describe Your Idea
We encourage young women to participate in the rigors of training and competition in combat sports, with the goal of empowering women.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
We encourage young women to participate in the rigors of training and competition in combat sports, with the goal of empowering women.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
Currently we serve anywhere from 75-100 individuals.
These individuals are young men and women who have been shunned away from most of society’s other social safety nets. In essence, many represent the true “redline” cases of at-risk youth
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
This initiative is run under the banner of Young Tigers Foundation, a non-profit organization which since 2003 has focused on providing mentorship and life skills education to urban at-risk youth, instilling in them these qualities through the medium of training and competition in boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Our Foundation actively recruits women to participate in our program. Currently, we have professional female boxers, professional kick boxers, and professional MMA combatants who train with us and attract additional female participants. These women are role models to other women attempting to find the empowerment and self-confidence to strive in a sport historically biased to men. The presence is a constant reminder and example that they can indeed progress in the sport and attain success, and by extension any life-endeavor to which they dedicate themselves.
The second factor our Foundation addresses is the conception of the role of women held by young urban males. Being young males from troubled urban environments, many come with negative conceptions as to a woman’s role and worth. The environment at YTF, encouraged and supervised by mentors/trainers, is one where men and women train and learn from each other on equal footing, and towards similar goals.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
Young Tigers Foundation, through the above referenced methods, intends to instill in young men and women the positive life skills they require.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
Success can be seen, as has already been seen in so many of our pupils, when a young man or women is taken away from the depredations of a street life and is molded into a responsible, empathetic, respectful, law-abiding individual capable of operating successfully in society and making that society and the people in it better off.
Through the use of evaluations, we have begun to track students progress on the following points:
• Decision making
• Ability to relate to others
• Accepting responsibility
• Build positive self esteem
• Self motivation
• Ability to problem solve
• Develop oral communication skills
• Setting goals
• Develop self-discipline
• Work in groups
We would be happy to share these reports as they become available, as well as testimonials, with any organization that enters into partnership with us.
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
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Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
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This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Currently we are financed entirely by private donations. We are attempting to seek private and public grants in accordance with a program of increasing our capacity to serve the community.
Financing source
Annual budget
$167,183
Annual revenue generated
This field has not been completed. (150 characters or less)
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Staff currently numbers 3 full-time mentors/organizers/trainers. Additional trainers/mentors/volunteers are approximately 5 individuals.
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
Currently our main barrier is in attaining a stable cashflow. Part of this stems from a lack of knowledgeable members with the initiative to seek outside financing. We have rectified this, as partially shown by this application, with a renewed and rigorous effort to seek grant monies.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
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The Story
What stage is your project?
Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
I, the individual who is applying for this grant, did not originate the program. In fact, I’m a product of it. I began participating at the Foundation in late 2007. From personal perspective I can freely admit that the level of discipline and humility I have learned through participation has been invaluable to me in improving myself as a person, and by extension my impact on those around me. The real impetus to dedicate my time to improving the Foundation came on viewing the impact it holds on the lives of others. In the short time I have been there, both anecdotally and through direct observation, I have seen countless young men and women from the most marginalized sectors of society adopted into the program and changed. Most were highshcool dropouts, and plenty with deep criminal records while still early in their youth. These young men and women found a nurturing environment at YTF that adopted them, cared for them and considered them not solely on the basis of who they were but on who they could become. The power of seeing this hope instilled in others and seeing it bloom into tangible improvements in participants lives has left a powerful mark in me, and a desire to YTF’s message of self-actualization and self-empowerment extended to as many others as possible.
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
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(Optional) To be eligible for an additional prize, please select age range
22 – 26
 | 169 weeks agoIvan Enriquez submitted this idea. |
