Today we’d like to introduce you to Tige Charity.
Hi Tige, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I describe myself as a visionary, a woman of radical faith, and a servant leader. After moving to Los Angeles with my husband, actor Antonio Charity, I visited a foster youth girls’ home where my husband was teaching acting classes. It cracked my heart wide open. Two years later, in May 2009, I founded Kids in the Spotlight, Inc. (KITS). I want to give foster youth the opportunity to share their story, to let them know and the world know their value and the fact that foster care does not define them; and to show the industry the hidden jewels that are in the foster care system.
In KITS’ flagship Script-to-Screen program, Los Angeles foster youth ages 12-22 write, cast, and star in their own short films under the mentorship of industry professionals from directors and screenwriters to lighting and set designers. The annual KITS Film Awards shares the year’s collection of short films written by and starring KITS youth with over 500 peers, friends, family, providers, personalities, and other stakeholders in attendance. Since 2009, KITS has created over 90 films with more than 850 foster youth.
I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oral Roberts University and an MBA in Nonprofit Management from American Jewish University. I have been a fellow in the prestigious City Scholars Fellowship Foundation’s CEO Leadership Program since 2017 and a member of the Women Presidents Organization (DTLA Chapter) since 2022. KITS’ board officers and I have completed both the Annenberg Alchemy for Black-led Organizations and the flagship Annenberg Alchemy nonprofit capacity building and leadership development programs. In 2022, I kicked off the 79th Golden Globes winners’ announcements as its first featured presenter. I was invited to present along with another dozen nonprofit leaders representing grantee organizations of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For 12 years, Kids In The Spotlight (KITS) faced a common but debilitating problem for emerging nonprofits: Our programs were high-functioning, but our staff, and most critically, our executive director, were overworked, underpaid, and at risk of burnout. KITS needed funding in order to add staff and consulting resources to meet the needs of the youth in foster care we serve.
In its 13th year, 2021-2022, KITS raised $2 million. These new funds increased KITS’ staff from five to a dozen by the end of 2022. In 2023, we’ll have the team we need to build the dream.
As you know, we’re big fans of Kids in the Spotlight, Inc. (KITS). For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
KITS helps Black and brown youth impacted by the Los Angeles foster and carceral systems to heal and grow from trauma through the power of storytelling and filmmaking.
In 2021, the New York Times featured a study on Hollywood’s anti-Black bias, which reported that structural racism costs the film and television industry $10 billion in revenue a year. Our strategy to combat anti-Black racism in Hollywood and the carceral system is to 1) invest in the untapped resource of our foster youth, 2) empower them with tools to turn adversity into achievement, and 3) supply them with vocational training and industry mentors, retaining our alumni as part of that pipeline and pursuing the full and equal agency and participation of Black and brown Americans in economic life.
In KITS’ flagship Script-to-Screen program, foster youth ages 12-22 write cast, and star in their own short films under the mentorship of industry professionals. The annual KITS Film Awards shares our year’s collection of short films written by and starring KITS youth.
Transitional-age youth ages 18-24 have access to an increasing array of mentored work opportunities through KITS’ industry contacts. KITS also contracts with corporate and non-profit clients to produce peer-to-peer social media messaging by KITS alumni, and our new Elevate Youth California documentary project employs three KITS alumni full-time for 2.5 years.
In December 2022, after a multi-year search, KITS secured a 5,300-square-foot lease-to-own studio and office property in Van Nuys. In the making for years, KITS’ Production Studio with Purpose will open its doors in 2023. This social enterprise will provide transitional-age youth with pre-professional education, training in media arts including digital media arts, and jobs in entertainment and content creation.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Philanthropic giving for Black-woman-led nonprofits is, historically, an underfunded area. Looking at the statistics and having those numbers stare at you in the face can make you feel defeated before you even begin. Our nonprofit struggled for over a decade to get the funding it needed to serve foster youth. I have to tell you, foster and other system-impacted youth also have the deck stacked against them, statistically speaking. For example, within 18 months of emancipation, half of former foster youth become unhoused. This next statistic also gets me every time: A child in foster care who is moved through five placements has a 90% chance of experiencing incarceration as an adult. So, for KITS to struggle for so long to serve these young people…it almost felt like our youth were being shut out all over again.
The most important lesson I’ve learned along my journey is gratitude. God will provide. The data does not predict our story. I learned to shift from anxiety and scarcity to a place of gratitude and plenty. This helped me survive the lean times and open the doors to abundant times.
Our mantra at KITS, one we teach all our youth to say aloud in class, is, “I can do great things BECAUSE I was created to do great things.” We were all created to do great things. When we live in a space of gratitude, we can do those great things.
Pricing:
- $1 million will make the purchase of our new studio and workforce development center possible. It will also put your name on our new building as the official KITS Patron of the Arts.
- $100,000 will change thousands of lives. It will also put your name on our Donor Wall inside the building lobby.
- $25,000 will underwrite Script-to-Screen enrollment for five foster youth and will give you a headline plaque on our Donor Wall.
- $10,000 will underwrite Script-to-Screen enrollment for two foster youth and will give you a major plaque on our Donor Wall.
- $5,000 will underwrite Script-to-Screen enrollment for one youth and will give you an individual plaque on our Donor Wall.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kitsinc.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsinthespotlight/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidsinthespotlight
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidsinspotlight
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kidsinthespotlight
