Shawna Spencer is the executive director of "I Am You." She teaches girls how to turn a bolt of fabric into high fashion and learning how to become entrepreneurs.
"So many times we want youth to be places that they're not, but we don't teach them. We think that they should know, but how do you know unless you're trained?" Spencer said.
Spencer started I Am You after a disturbing encounter with a group of high school girls. At the time she owned an upscale shoe boutique.
"We sold shoes from $250 to $1200 shoes, so I was serving the upper echelon of women," Spencer said. "When I saw the despair and the pain and the hurt with our young ladies... I got angry."
She calls the organization I Am You because seeing those girls was a painful reminder of herself growing up on Chicago's West Side. Spencer shuttered her business and started the non-profit in hopes of inspiring change.
"God did not give me the gift He gave me to travel the world and to see things. You know, do business on an international level, import shoes from all over not just for me. It wasn't just for me," Spencer said.
Spencer believes the teens also need hands on training in sales and marketing. So as part of the program, they run a retail store, Red Dot Resale Shop, 1007 West Lawrence. The students sell the clothes they make as well as donated merchandise.
"When you greet a customer, you're communicating. By having good communicating skills, you'll be able to sell your products," Briana Jacobs, 16, said.
"We had exercises to where we had to act like if we were on the elevator with a famous person how would we approach them to get them to come here so we can sell our stuff to them," Jayde Love, 16, said.
I Am You also has a mentoring component to help guide the teens through other life issues. Tanisha Washington completed the program and now volunteers. She says for her, the mentoring was most compelling.
"I came back here to do volunteering because I know it's a lot of girls have went through some of the things that I went through and I know they need some of the skills that I learned," Washington said.
For Spencer, seeing the young women grow and gain skills is proof she made the right business decision.
"I'm 80 percent hands-on in all of my programming. I'm not your perfect Executive Director that's going out getting the money. I'm touching the lives," Spencer said.
Sales in the boutique help to fund the program. The teens also receive a stipend through After School Matters. The students' designs will be part of a fashion show Friday, April 15 at the Grossinger City Autoplex, 1530 N. Dayton from 5 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $35, general admission; $25 for students/seniors; and $50 for corporate sponsors. Get event details at www.iamyounfp.eventbrite.com or learn more about Red Dot Resale Shop and the nonprofit at iamyounfp.org