TJJD News & Announcements

DALLAS, Texas – Advisory Councils (DYRAC) A.R.T. Program for youth at Cottrell House. A.R.T. stands for Assessing Real Talent. The program is meant to teach youth how to improve their talents as well as give them resources to pull from for future use. Wachelle Williams, DYRAC Chairperson stated, “Many of the youth at Cottrell House are so talented in music, cooking, sports and many other areas. I want to make sure that they have resources and contacts to help them pursue their talents.” With that goal in mind, DYRAC applied for and received a grant from the State Volunteer Resource Council to help youth reach their potential in the A.R.T. Program. Cherika (Che) Roundtree of Strictly DFW Radio is an active member of DYRAC. She also mentors youth at Cottrell House and knows firsthand of the talent that many youth have. Che stated, “Youth have talents that need to be guided. I want to help youth that are interested in the music business.” Lavator (Ms. T) Jefferson, Artist Manager, a...

Cottrell House youth honored Black History Month by celebrating all cultures and their achievements. Youth made this decision because they each recognized that they all have a culture and heritage that they are proud of and want to share. Youth worked together and agreed to prepare a meal from each of their cultures. An important part of the agreement was that everyone had to participate by cooking not only their culture’s food, but other cultures as well. Stephanie Howell, GED teacher at Cottrell House, expressed her pride in the youth for deciding to honor all culture groups. She said, “We normally have a cooking class twice a month for youth. I taught youth how to search for recipes on different internet cooking sites. We started with making cookies and then we prepared food for Thanksgiving. I was surprised when the youth decided to celebrate Black History month by cooking foods from all different cultures of the youth at Cottrell House. This was something they decided and pla...