The tragedy in life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity not to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream…It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is the sin.
Dr. Benjamin Mays
The OneVoice Project begun as a movement to bring some of America's brightest, most daring, and most compassionate young people together as a single intellectual group.
The purpose of this group was to seek out creative and innovative solutions to some of society's most daunting socioeconomic problems, using large-scale entrepreneurial models, as well as fresh new ways of implementing them. The idea behind this cross-sectoral collaboration was two-fold:
- First, that perhaps only one voice was missing from the world to solve all of our most challenging problems – and that perhaps that voice was withering away somewhere in black poverty.
- Second, that perhaps if we all collectively combined our voices into one, that we might be able to make systematic change.
The group quickly began to assemble young professionals from across the boundaries of race, location, gender, and profession, who had one common goal - the transformation of society's underclass. These young people – all from backgrounds of poverty and poorness – short on resources and connections, but long on talent, ambition, drive, and compassion came together to strategize about ways to transform forgotten communities all over the nation, and eventually, the globe. Short on outside support, these individuals used whatever personal resources they could muster to meet regularly and to conduct research.
The mission of OneVIBE has always been to seek solutions that address underlying root problems, rather than focusing on surface symptoms.
This effort was specifically focused on positively transforming the lives of children, families, and communities of all races, but especially the black diaspora. All the core founders and members of OneVoice had grown up in seas of black poverty and despair with few ways out beyond the military or athletics. Most believed that was the only representation of black communities. This changed with research that uncovered the Historic black community in Durham, North Carolina – Hayti. In Hayti, this group of young black individuals found the most successful representation of black community equity in American history.
Creation of Durham Global Equity Project (DGEP)
From that came the creation of the Durham Global Equity Project (DGEP). Based on Hayti’s nearly century-long success from the end of the American Civil War to the end of the American Civil Rights Movement (1865-1967). This special model of Hayti’s leadership is what OneVoice has strove to develop through entrepreneurship and leadership education. DGEP has been an ambitious foray down OneVoice’s committed path of educating youth in ways that directly contribute and transform their communities. DGEP envisions a community that will never be inhibited by racial stereotypes or societal limits.
The organization exists with the purpose of creating a critical mass of leadership that will substantially improve the condition of human life through service and solution, substantially enhance historically depressed environments through creative imagination, and substantially enrich the entire culture of society. The LLETE (pronounced “Elite”) Fellowship Program, an acronym for Life and Leadership Education Through Entrepreneurship, is a key strategy for training BIPOC children to be transformational leaders for their communities and the world.
Fundamental to this designation is a talented group of individuals actively involved in historical analysis, multidisciplinary research, multifaceted application processes, and multidimensional strategic models. This approach does not focus on simply alleviating surface symptoms associated with persistent problems, such as generational poverty, but seeking out curative solutions at the root of the problem. It is our belief that problems having festered for decades will not be solved overnight or from a single-dimensional model.
The sheer AMBITIOUSNESS of our endeavors is often what separates us from other organizations. To understand why our method is important one must hold a grander vision for the individuals and families that hale from the nation's most depressed areas. America has never been about a single community or a single group, but about an interconnected group of diverse individuals, and communities, that make up a whole. Yet, from a historical perspective, some groups have suffered more socially, politically, and economically than others. Over time, this has resulted in real-world racism, cultural malnutrition, generational poverty, low-level individual and communal esteem, and a myriad of other problems.
By altering the standard perspective and looking at these communities as hotbeds for growth and investment, while focusing on ambitious but achievable undertakings, we are saying two things to both individuals inside and outside those undercapitalized groups. First, we are saying that we are not imposing undue limitations on these group's abilities as they relate to other groups; secondly, we are laying a foundation for which the youth of these affected groups can expand their vision beyond their current circumstances. This is not a perspective of sympathy or unwarranted optimism, but a view of communities that can be transformed permanently for the betterment of all society. The goal is to work with leaders from the communities, as well as training youth, who will go back into those areas in a broad and critical mass, helping to create wealth, economic independence, and community pride and esteem. Critical mass will be the key. The goal is for these individuals to not limit their visions to simply escaping their communities, but also seek ways to positively transform them.
By seeking large-scale solutions, that enhance and compliment smaller projects, there are real opportunities to make long-term and sustainable impacts, as well as permanent positive changes, by helping substantially more individuals, families, and communities than would otherwise be the case. This would set in place a system of meaningful change that would have positive effects for generations to come. By spurring a major economic transformation of rural and inner city communities, locally, nationally, and internationally (especially communities of color), there is a potential for reducing racist stereotypes and perceptions, generational poverty, battered communal esteem, and the culture of limited expectation.