Mission
Why We Can't Wait, Inc.'s mission is to empower and develop youth and teens in underserved communities to be productive citizens in society. Also, we will improve parent involvement and combat growing health disparities in underserved communities such as, but not limited to, childhood obesity, violence, childhood diabetes, and sedentary lifestyles of families.
Purpose Statement
Why We Can't Wait, Inc. provides a non-traditional program for boys 12 -18 years old that reside in the Tony Sudekum/ J.C.Napier housing projects. One of our biggest goals has been to reduce the number of murders occurring among teens that live in these developments. Secondly, and evident in our professional development and career shadowing experiences, is our goal to guarantee that our students are career-ready.
Background
Why We Can't Wait, Inc. was conceived after years of working with youth and teens in a traditional fashion. The 8:00 am - 4:00 pm worked for some youth; however, as we looked at the statistics and the various crimes and murders among African American boys, we knew something had to change. Why We Can't Wait, Inc. looked at the obvious, female headed households, lack of summer employment for teens, lack of exposure to men role models, missing fathers, open air drug selling in the community, poor graduation rates, violence, and we constructed a nontraditional program to reach and teach this population. All of this, coupled with one of our colleagues crying with a mother after her 17 year old son was killed. He graduated from high school one week prior to his death. Thus Why We Can't Wait, Inc. was born! 5:00 pm until 10:00 pm is a critical time in these communities. Why We Can't Wait, Inc. brings hope and provides opportunities to boys on there way to becoming men.