Let's do Good together

Coh usa

Color of Hope provides the cultural and ancestral reference our teens and young adults crave but are deprived of due to disengaged, overworked parents and lack of access to extra-curricular activities. Color of Hope has been a vehicle for less fortunate youth to mature into civically engaged, purposeful, productive citizens by providing opportunities to service their community and connect with their home country. We empower Haitian youth with the mindset to become great!

Here are programs that are already underway in development and implementation. We will post new programs as they become available.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & ADVOCACY

Our mission is to build power among a broad membership, one that provides leadership and direction for the organization’s activities. We believe that the key to our success is building leadership among our community and staff. Our organizing program is structured to build the skills needed to empower our community to initiate positive change in their lives.

HAITIAN ARTS COUNCIL

The Haitian Arts Council is being formulated to promote Haitian culture and Haitian American artists in South Florida. The Council will organize a wide range of cultural activities, including poetry and theater readings, art shows, and musical performances. Outreach activities in schools and libraries include visits by prominent Haitian authors, poets, storytellers, and calligraphy experts. The council will developed educational modules for presentations to schools, churches, corporations, and other community organizations.

These presentations will incorporate discuss on issues such as the Haitian World, Haitian Americans, Haiti, Haitian Family, and many others, to help dispel myths and provide education to non-Haitian and non-Haitian communities about the rich and varied culture, history, and heritage of the Haitian people. Cultural programming will be the heaviest during Haitian Heritage Month, and the Council works with the Haitian Advisory Council to organize a multitude of events in May every year. In addition, the arts council will join with Palm Beach County Cultural Council in programs to promotes collaborative programming with other ethnic minorities as well as singular highlights of each culture.

NATIONAL HAITIAN AMERICAN FORUM

This annual Presentation is held in May in celebration of our Heritage Month. The forum is created to educate, uplift, and empower Haitian Americans by bringing people together and engaging them in thoughtful dialogue, leading the way to constructive action. Haitian Americans are longing for thoughtful, concrete discussions and debates from leaders in our community. These influential thinkers, entertainers, and politicians will take center stage to express their thoughts about some of the most pressing issues of today and to inspire innovative and lasting solutions.

NATIONAL NETWORK FOR HAITIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITIES

COH will be the first network working to bring together Haitian-American community organizations to work towards the empowerment of Haitian Americans around the country. The NNHAC will be a national network of independent Haitian-American community-based organizations. The Network’s primary mission is the development of grassroots institutions that can meet the needs of and represent the concerns of Haitian Americans at the local level and collectively raise these concerns on the national stage. It is a source of capacity building assistance, a forum for knowledge sharing and collaboration on joint human service programs, and a platform for speaking out on issues of concern to Haitian-American communities. Partner organizations in the Network are rooted in their grassroots constituencies and have an inclusive approach to serving their clientele or membership with a range of service programs, outreach or advocacy.The chief activities of the network will be:

Capacity-building support for Haitian-American service providers.
Joint programs addressing immigrant integration, public health, education and other social services.

Support for local advocacy efforts and joint campaigns around access to social services, civil rights/civil liberties, immigration policy, and civic

engagement—organized from the perspective of grassroots providers.
Channeling our local efforts in support of national advocacy coalitions.

Through its commitment to financially strong and effectively managed community institutions, the Network will strive to mobilize locally to support a national agenda for empowering the Haitian-American community.The network will also be leading voice in the national immigrant rights work, with an advocacyinitiative that is incorporating the Haitian voice and issues into the comprehensive immigration reform organizing and policy analysis.

CHOOSE A CAMERA

“Choose a Camera” program focuses to bring media opportunities to our Haitian brothers and sisters. It is a proactive testament and artistically centric workshop effort to bring a new light of hope to a vast array of untapped talent in our struggling communities. To avert much of the apathy that is consuming our children, we as responsible parents, must provide them with the opportunity and a platform to share and explore their talent. Color of Hope, Inc wants to showcase our children and their gifts to the world at large.

DOMESTIC ANTI-VIOLENCE PROGRAM

Linguistic, religious, and cultural barriers have limited the capacity of organizations in the broader domestic violence community to provide effective services to Haitian American and Haitian immigrants survivors of domestic violence. The goal of COH domestic violence program is to provide prevention and intervention services to individuals and families in the Haitian communities of the greater Palm Beach area. It is our vision to reduce the problem of violence against men, women and children in our community.

We are currently focusing on community outreach, education, and direct services to survivors of domestic violence. As our funding and capacity increases, we envision a more comprehensive program that would service to the abuser.

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

COH will work to offer an immediate response to detentions, deportations, and other attacks on immigrants that result from Homeland Security policies, to disseminate information to the general public about attacks against immigrants in the context of the “War on Terrorism,” and to mobilize supporters in active opposition of policies that suppresses civil and political rights of immigrant

JAM—YOUTH ORGANIZING

Our youth organizing initiative is designed to empower HAITIAN youth to:

Identify the issues that have the most impact on their lives.

Find the resources needed to enhance their knowledge on these issues and educate themselves.

Organize to have impact on these issues, or if needed, to affect change so that these issues will be resolved. JAM will be formed with youth organizing program founded by Haitian-American youth.