ABOUT FOCUS FAIRIES
A place for healing, sisterhood and
possibility.
Focus Fairies Mentoring is a community-based nonprofit supporting Black girls and young women of color through culturally responsive mentorship, healing-centered programming and access to mental-wellness, leadership and opportunity pathways.
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INSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEW
Who we are, in one paragraph.
Founded in Chicago in 2017, Focus Fairies serves girls and young women ages 7–21 through school-based cohorts, community programming, individualized mentoring, justice-system-connected services, workforce pathways and mobile outreach. The organization is rooted in the belief that girls should not have to overcome trauma alone in order to succeed.
OUR STORY
Girls should not have to overcome trauma alone in order to succeed.
In 2017, Dr. Darryca Brim-Mims and Kenya J. Conley founded Focus Fairies Mentoring with a simple conviction: girls deserve consistent support before pain, pressure and other people's expectations define their futures. Their own experiences — as a young caregiver and a teen mother navigating school and survival — made the need personal.
They had seen brilliant girls absorb grief, responsibility and harmful messages long before adulthood. Focus Fairies was created as a place where girls could learn the opposite: your emotions matter, your voice matters, and you matter.
What began with one site and a small volunteer team has grown into a continuum of school-based mentoring, teen leadership, workforce pathways, individualized coaching, violence-prevention services, mental-wellness support and mobile community engagement. The organization continues to choose depth, consistency and trusted relationships over one-time programming.
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WHAT HAS NEVER CHANGED
Six convictions that predate every program
Early intervention matters
Healing requires consistent relationships.
Girls are not defined by trauma
Joy, faith, rest and creativity belong in youth development.
Families and communities are partners, not afterthoughts.
Girls should have opportunities to lead and give back.
FOUNDER PERSPECTIVE
" We built the space we knew girls needed."
— Dr. Darryca Brim-Mims, Co-Founder & Executive Director
OUR MISSION
Mission
Focus Fairies Mentoring empowers and uplifts Black girls and young women of color through safe spaces for healing, culturally responsive mentorship and personal growth. We support girls impacted by community violence, vicarious trauma and systemic inequities by strengthening social-emotional skills, resilience, healthy relationships, leadership and positive identity development.
OUR VISION
Vision
We envision a world where Black and Brown girls are safe, seen and spiritually affirmed — free from cycles of trauma and harm. A future where their voices are cherished, their leadership is cultivated, and they confidently walk in purpose, light and courage.
CORE VALUES
EIGHT COMMITMENTS
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
Faith at the Center
God is the foundation of our work and decision-making.
OUR APPROACH
From safe relationships to self-determined futures.
Focus Fairies combines healing-centered mentorship, culturally responsive curriculum, individualized support, family engagement and real-world opportunity. The model nurtures the strength already within each girl.
1. Safe relationships
2. Healing and belonging
3. Confidence and agency
4. Leadership, opportunity
and safer futures
If girls in disinvested communities have safe spaces where they are seen, heard and supported to understand their emotions, name their experiences and reimagine their identities, then they develop the confidence, emotional intelligence and agency needed to advocate for themselves, resist harmful pressures and pursue meaningful goals — so they define their own futures rather than being defined by trauma or others' expectations.
FIVE CURRICULUM VALUES
What every session is built on
Self-Awareness
Understanding identity, emotions and choices.
Self-Awareness
Understanding identity, emotions and choices.
Self-Awareness
Understanding identity, emotions and choices.
Self-Awareness
Understanding identity, emotions and choices.
Self-Awareness
Understanding identity, emotions and choices.
Participant Experience
What you'll actually do.
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Participant Experience
What you'll actually do.
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
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MENTAL-WELLNESS INTEGRATION
We are not a substitute for clinical care — and we say so.
FFM mentors and facilitators are not substitutes for licensed clinical care. The organization integrates mental-wellness education, emotional-regulation practices, screening and referral pathways, and partnerships with mental-health specialists. When girls need more intensive support, FFM helps connect families to appropriate licensed care and community resources.
Participant Experience
What you'll actually do.
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development
Résumé and LinkedIn development