50+ Lifestyles

Lives of Legacy

Every Monday – Wednesday from 5-7 pm at the Davenport Family YMCA you’ll find Lives of Legacy volunteers interacting with kids and teens helping them with reading, math, and life skills.

“When a child enters kindergarten ready to learn, they are twice as likely to be able to read in third grade, which is one of the biggest indicators showing whether someone will graduate high school.” According to the United Way of the Quad Cities website. “In the Quad Cities, 14 percent of the children are not ready for kindergarten.”

Founded in the summer of 2018, Lives of Legacy strives, “to help everyone become who God created them to become,” states Jeremy Tatman, founder. “Everyone in the poverty community is made in the image of God and full of worth and value.”

Lives of Legacy as a non-profit organization is based on four pillars: Strengths-Based Poverty Alleviation, Community Safety & Security, Community Health & Wellness, and Cradle-to-Career Education.

Strengths-Based Poverty Alleviation aims to helps students to identify and develop their strengths in order for them to change their futures and get out of poverty. Community Safety & Security strives to create a safer community within the Quad Cities. Community Health & Wellness aims to help people as a whole by providing health and wellness resources through business partners. Finally, Cradle-to-Career Education strives to help people from birth to adult have the education they need to succeed in life.

These pillars help Lives of Legacy to accomplish its vision that the at-risk community in the Quad Cities would be equipped to escape poverty through strengths-based development and training.

Lives of Legacy also provides a thirteen-week course to help high school students identify and develop their strengths through the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment. “Often their worth is undervalued. We want to help them realize how valuable they are and that their community needs the gifts that they have.” Tatman states. Throughout the course, they will not only identify their strengths but also get job training and create a life plan to utilize their strengths. The course meets for one hour, once a week and graduates will earn $100 or a free pair of Jordan shoes.

Lives of Legacy is always looking for business partners and volunteers to get involved. A community meeting is held every first Friday of the month at the Davenport Family YMCA at 7:30 am. Volunteers are also needed for the weekly program with students. To get involved, email livesoflegacy@gmail.com for an application. More information about Lives of Legacy can be found at www.facebook.com/livesoflegacy.