Expose: An Urban Cultural Experience

Founded in 1995, Essential2Life has been dedicated to making a difference in the plight of at-risk youth, one person, one problem, one need at a time. We focus on the youth because they are the ones who will shape the direction of urban life in the next generation.

We have gained credibility in Atlanta’s communities by going directly into Atlanta’s public housing communities for more than a decade to visit youth and families in their homes while building authentic relationships, but as the city has changed, we have become more creative in how we reach our communities.

We are dedicated to building close relationships with the “at-risk” youth of our city and to provide hope-filled programs that will give them opportunities to be more.

Essential2Life began the Expose experience 10 years ago to educate and expose individuals to the terrible realities of poverty for Atlanta’s inner city youth and what is being done to fight against that poverty. We do this by providing the opportunity for individuals to serve with Essential2Life and other organizations as they seek to make a difference in the lives of impoverished urban youth. These organizations are working full time with urban youth through out the year. Also, through activities and speakers, we will seek to educate our attendees on the issues related to urban poverty. The Expose experience is an educational serving experience.

There are indispensable physical needs that are essential for any person to simply survive:
• Food, water, shelter, & clothing. Everyone must have these needs to exist.

Yet there are also specific emotional, spiritual, educational and social needs that are essential to truly live, not just exist:
• A sense of purpose, hope, opportunities, meaningful relationships, and dreams of a future.

Poverty is often mistakenly defined in economic terms, as an inability to meet physical needs. Providing the physical needs for those who cannot is important, but in doing so, we are only treating the symptoms of poverty. It is actually a lack of educational opportunities, and social needs in an individual’s life that is ultimately the root cause of poverty. We cannot begin to combat poverty until we give hope, love, opportunity, and purpose to impoverished youth. Until we do so, they will just simply exist.

The youth of our inner cities, and particularly Atlanta, live each and every day without the spiritual, emotional, educational, and social needs that are necessary to live a full life. They live in an environment so problematic, so hopeless, so negative that they are considered “at-risk.” At-risk for:
• Violence, abuse, crime, gang life, prostitution, STD’s, incarceration, homelessness, despair, substance abuse, suicide.

They live a life of just existing, with little or no hope of changing anything. They have known only disappointment and negativity.

The City of Atlanta has one of the highest rates of children living without these essentials in the country.
• Inner-city Atlanta comprises only about 16% of the metro-Atlanta population, but is home to a disproportionate 43% of the regions poor (US Census Bureau).
• It is estimated that nearly 25% of the children and youth who live in Fulton County (Atlanta’s County) are in poverty (US Census Bureau).

The City of Atlanta is also the number 1 sex trafficking center in the country.
• It has the highest rate of commercial sex exploitation of children in the nation, where half of all street level prostitutes are under the age of 18.
• The Juvenile Justice Fund states that the “overwhelming majority” of these sexually exploited children are African-American and from poverty stricken, at-risk backgrounds.

The 30318 zip code, where Essential2Life serves each and every week, is one of the neediest areas in the country.

• 50% of the youth in this area will not finish high school.
• The average household income is just under $11,000 a year, less than 1/3 of the national average.
In one community, 60% of the residents are HIV positive.

This is the reality of life for Atlanta’s urban youth.

We need your help to fight against the root causes of poverty. We are not asking you to change the world or the city of Atlanta. We know that poverty is a huge and complex issue that seems daunting. So, all that we ask of you is to make a difference in the life of one youth. One hug, one smile, one laugh, one listening ear, or one game might be all that it takes to let a youth know that someone does care about them and that there is hope of a life beyond the negativity of poverty. Fighting poverty as a whole seems impossible, but starting just one relationship is very possible. We need you because it is impossible for us to reach every single youth. It is impossible for us to do all the work that the communities need so that the youth have a safe and comfortable place to live and thrive. But with you, it is possible.