First Day At Cabrini Connections

We had two new faces at Cabrini Connections tonight. On the left is El Da'Sheon Nix, the new Administrative Coordinator for Cabrini Connections. On the right is James Robinson, a student from Liverpool, UK (home of the Beatles!). He's in the US to learn about mentoring strategies.

Here's an intro from El Da'Sheon:

First and foremost I would like to thank the entire staff and youth for the opportunity to become a part of your lives as I begin as the new Administrative Coordinator of the organization. And with that being said, I would like to say that I am extremely grateful and excited about this opportunity.

My name is EL Da’ Sheon Nix and I’m from Sandusky, Ohio. Through hard work, locating and utilizing resources and necessary support systems, and through many other factors I graduated from Sandusky High School in June 2000 and entered Northwestern University on a full-ride football scholarship in the fall of 2000. Due to a career ending knee injury early in my career I was forced to hang up the cleats, but I remained focused in the classroom. I majored in Human Development and Psychological Services and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and Social Policy in June of 2004.

With the degree and the lifelong desire of always wanting to help and better the lives of others, especially youth, I officially began my career. I worked for two years as the Lead Mental Health Professional at the Rice Child and Family Center, which is a residential facility that provides services to adolescents with mental and behavioral disorders. Then I moved on to the Youth Organization Umbrella (Y.O.U.) where I worked for a year as a Youth Development Worker at two of the after school programs. And before I joined the team at Cabrini Connections I worked as the Director of Social Services at the Evanston Community Defender Office in downtown Evanston.

Now that I am here at Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connections I bring with me not only a desire and passion to assist youth with learning the skills needed in order to reach their goals, dreams, and future careers, but I also bring with me a complete admiration for the people who share their time, resources, and experiences with the youth they come into contact with.

Again, I thank each and every one of you for allowing me to be a part of your lives today and hopefully apart of YOUR future success stories.

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James Robinson is a student at Liverpool Hope University (Childhood & Youth Studies/3-year module with option on Mentoring for Children and Young People). James has started his own web site to share his stories and hopefully he'll be writing about his visit to Cabrini Connections on the site. Here's the link: http://www.mustle.org James working with Storytelling projects so I encourage you to read about the MUSTLE AFRICA TRUST, a non-profit organisation newly launched in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to coordinate activities with street youth.

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We're pleased to have El Da'Sheon join the staff at Cabrini Connections and hope that James will become a long range member of the Tutor/Mentor Connection's network. This is just one example of how Cabrini Connections and its students are connected to the world via the people who visit us to learn about what we're doing to help youth in Chicago.