By Clifford L. Williams

Terri J. Vaughn’s ‘Take Wings Foundation’ (TWF) recently held its fifth annual Angel Awards Gala in San Francisco to recognize the foundation’s work and honor this year’s award recipients.

   TWF is a non-profit corporation that helps to build self esteem of at-risk girls between the ages of 13-18 living in San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area, by providing positive experiences and role modeling.
    This year, the foundation presented awards to Nola Kesia Brantley, coordinator of the Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth Services Center, and Walter Turner, founder and executive director of Parents Who Care of San Francisco.
    The nearly 500 people who attended the event were entertained by host Cedric the Entertainer (Kings of Comedy), as well as a live performance by Erica Campbell of the Grammy award-winning gospel duo, Mary Mary.
    Vaughn is an award-winning actress who played “Lovita” on the “Steve Harvey Show”, and Brenda in Tyler Perry’s “Daddy’s Little Girls”. Growing up in Hunters Point, Vaughn saw first hand the challenges teenage girls face everyday in a community infested with drug trafficking, gang violence, prostitution and many other negative elements. She started the Foundation 10 years ago.
    “It all began with me inviting 40 girls from my old Hunter’s Point neighborhood out to dinner,” said Vaughn. “I rented a hotel room and had the 40 girls meet me there with two of my celebrity friends and we had dinner and talked about things we had been through, and things the girls were going through.”
    The end result was the establishment of the Take Wings Foundation. “...the Foundation offers workshops throughout the year providing life-skills training for the girls,” said Vaughn. “The girls are taught everything from restaurant etiquette to self-esteem, effective communication and writing skills, dealing with conflict resolution, preparing for employment, and developing career goals, in addition to a wide range of other things they aren’t usually exposed to.”
    “The Foundation also provides scholarships for girls who want to attend college, with little concern on what their GPA may be,” noted Vaughn. “Additionally, we offer overnight retreats away from the Bay Area to expose girls to other places and opportunities that may interest them so they have options to choose from other than the four corners they live on everyday.”
    “Events such as this gala, where the girls see hundreds of people come out to support them—people they don’t even know—who care about the decisions they will make in the lives, is huge for them,” she said.
    In her closing remarks Vaughn said the girls, “Thank you ‘Take Wings Angels’ for trusting me and all of us at the Foundation with your hearts, your secrets, your pains, your dreams and your fears. I hold all of you and everything we share very close to my heart.”
    The Foundation also provides quality life skills to girls in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties.
    For more information in TWF, visit the website at www.takewings.org.