The nsoro Educational Foundation

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The nsoro Educational Foundation Our Mission is to provide access to post secondary education for all youth in foster care. We invest the money we raise in youth from foster care.

nsoro provides college-preparatory programs and direct educational scholarships for youth in foster care, those who've "aged out" of the foster care system, and wards of the state. Darrell Mays, founder of nsoro, was moved to this mission after viewing the PBS documentary, "Aging Out" on the plight of aged-out foster care kids. Kids who've spent time in the foster care system are already far more likely to:

Be socially disconnected
Perform poorly in school
Struggle with drugs, alcohol, and mental illness
Experience poverty

But once "aged-out," life gets far riskier for them. Often with no place to live anymore, largely unable to fend for themselves, and with little or no positive guidance in their lives, these kids are dangerously vulnerable to take a wrong turn in life. nsoro steps up and steps in during this precarious period in their lives, and driven by this deep and abiding belief: education is the great equalizer in life. Our mission is to reverse this grim statistic...
A mere 3% of youth in foster care graduates from college. nsoro is successfully rewriting the future life stories of these youth in foster care across the country—700+ since 2005—with these two programs:

Direct Educational Scholarships
to be used for tuition, books, room/board, and other academic expenses

College Bound Program
In weeklong, summer immersion programs on eight (and counting) college campuses, high school level youth in foster care "test-drive" a real-world experience. The Results:
our nsoro scholars:
100% have graduated or are still enrolled in school
70% are pursuing an advanced degree
98% have not been incarcerated
96% have not abused drugs or alcohol
78% have not been homeless
75% have developed and maintained a budget

08/25/2026

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Impact has an address in Miami, and Shavon Saint Preux keeps building it.

July 30, 2026, Shavon broke ground on Triumph House, her third transitional home serving young people exiting foster care. This six-bedroom home will be dedicated to young women at one of the most consequential points in their transition to adulthood, providing housing stability, mentorship, resources, and the foundation to begin building an independent future.

For team nsoro, this milestone carries special meaning. Shavon is a nsoro alumna. Today, as Founder and Director of Propelling Into Triumph (The PIT Center), she is creating the very infrastructure that changes trajectories: a safe place to live, trusted guidance, and a clear path forward.

Shavon has moved an idea into an operating model, increasing housing capacity and much-needed stabilization for young people in Miami. We could not be prouder to watch her lead, build, and extend her impact.

Congratulations, Shavon.

THE JOBSITE JUST ENTERED THE CLASSROOM. 🥽⚡🔨Today, nsoroWORKS youth stepped into training with our partners at PROJECT B....
08/18/2026

THE JOBSITE JUST ENTERED THE CLASSROOM. 🥽⚡🔨

Today, nsoroWORKS youth stepped into training with our partners at PROJECT B.U.I.L.D., including virtual reality technology that lets young people experience the environment, tools, and decision-making of today’s skilled workforce in an entirely different way.

PROJECT B.U.I.L.D. combines mentoring, financial literacy and workforce development with industry-recognized certifications and job-placement support, preparing young adults for careers in construction, logistics and the skilled trades. Their footprint across Southwest Florida and Metro Atlanta makes this partnership especially powerful for nsoro as we continue building pathways for youth in both markets.

And today, our ecosystem grew again.

We are elated to introduce The Center for Children & Young Adults (CCYA) an Atlanta-area organization that has served homeless and foster care youth for more than four decades. CCYA provides a continuum of safe housing, transitional and independent living, life-skills development, educational support, and employment readiness precisely the kind of stabilization infrastructure that can make a career pathway possible.

This is the nsoroWORKS ecosystem taking shape.
Young people ready to work.
Housing partners.
Training partners.
Credentialing partners.
Employers.
Community organizations.

America has a significant skilled-labor gap. Our job at nsoro is to keep connecting the pieces, forging a clear line from stability ➡️ skill ➡️ credential ➡️ career ➡️ financial independence. Because the workforce gap and the opportunity gap may have more to say to one another than we think. That is nsoroWORKS. And we are building.

WEALTH, MADE VISIBLE.This summer, six Wednesdays with HB Wealth became six conversations about how money actually works....
08/14/2026

WEALTH, MADE VISIBLE.
This summer, six Wednesdays with HB Wealth became six conversations about how money actually works. Our young people shared dinner, asked candid questions, worked through real-life decisions, and learned directly from professionals who spend their careers navigating and growing wealth. From the first dollar earned to the assets one day left behind, the HB Wealth Summer Series followed the full arc of financial life.

Six subjects. Six rooms full of questions. One much larger idea: Financial independence becomes more imaginable when the mechanics of wealth are no longer hidden.

Special gratitude to Cindy Wilson and the exceptional HB Wealth volunteer SMEs who gave our young people access to the language, mechanics, and possibilities of wealth and treated every question as worthy of an answer.





1 | EFFECTIVE BUDGETING + SAVINGS
Start with what you have. Know where it goes.
Budgeting became a tool for choice how to manage income, anticipate expenses, build savings, and make today’s money serve tomorrow’s goals.

2 | TAXES
Your paycheck tells only part of the story.
W-2s, withholding, deductions, refunds, earned income the group unpacked what happens between what you earn and what you actually keep.

3 | LOANS + LENDING
The price is one number. The cost is another.
Credit, interest rates, car financing, borrowing, and repayment came off the page and into real life.
The lesson: understand the terms before signing your name.

4 | INVESTING BASICS
Money can work, too.
Stocks, bonds, diversification, risk, compound growth, and time introduced a powerful idea: building wealth can begin long before someone considers themselves wealthy.

5 | INSURANCE
Protect what you are working so hard to build.
Insurance became less about policies and premiums and more about managing risk, protecting income, property, health, and the financial progress already underway.

6 | ESTATE PLANNING
What you build deserves instructions.
Wills, beneficiaries, assets, decision-making, and legacy brought the series full circle. Estate planning began with a surprising truth: you do not have to be wealthy to begin thinking

.A new season together.🏀The NBA Foundation has renewed its investment in nsoro, and we are especially grateful to our ho...
08/11/2026

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A new season together.🏀

The NBA Foundation has renewed its investment in nsoro, and we are especially grateful to our hometown Atlanta Hawks for their continued support of this partnership.

As the NBA Foundation marks six years, it is also celebrating an extraordinary milestone: $165 million awarded, more than 300 nonprofit partners, and more than one million youth reached across NBA markets. Think about the lives inside those numbers. Our youth are gaining access to employment. Building skills. Finding opportunity. Beginning careers. Seeing a larger future for themselves.

We are grateful that our youth are part of that story through nsoroWORKS, And here in Atlanta, our appreciation runs deep for the Atlanta Hawks for their connection to this work, their commitment to our community, and the role they continue to play in bringing the NBA Foundation’s mission home.

To the NBA Foundation and the Atlanta Hawks: thank you for another season together. There is more work ahead. What a privilege to get to do it in such good company.



08/09/2026

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SPA AFTER DARK: THE RESET
Woodhouse Spa Buckhead | Atlanta
Thirty guests. One beautifully unexpected evening.

Spa After Dark began with a simple idea: invite friends of nsoro’s donor community into a space designed for discovery of one another, of our mission, and of what becomes possible when the right people find themselves in the same room.

A Restorative experience. And a magnificent sound bath that seemed to surface new layers of vibration and resonance, quieting the room until we were all simply…present.

Then came the conversations.
New relationships. New curiosity. New connections to the young people nsoro serves as they build lives with postsecondary completion and financial independence.

Our deepest thanks to Stacey and Hollis Howell, owners of Woodhouse Day Spa Buckhead, for opening their doors so generously; Oyin, owner of Rayo Events, for helping shape the evening; and Holly Levine, CEO of Sublime Holistic Wellness, for creating an experience we will remember. An evening of wellness. A room full of possibility.

The Reset was the first chapter. We have a feeling you’ll want to know when the next door opens.

Luxury Spa, Atlanta Georgia, Wellness RayoEvents Kim Evans
Sublime Holistic Wellness

.Building connections.Creating opportunities.Strengthening Georgia’s workforce.Our nsoroWORKS Programs Team, Kayla Beasl...
07/29/2026

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Building connections.
Creating opportunities.
Strengthening Georgia’s workforce.

Our nsoroWORKS Programs Team, Kayla Beasley, proudly represented The nsoro Educational Foundation at the 3rd Annual GAHBA Workforce Development Luncheon, where workforce leaders, educators, employers, and community organizations came together to discuss innovative strategies for developing the next generation of talent.

A special thank you to Ron Stebenne for your continued support and dedication to creating career opportunities for young people. We also appreciate the opportunity to connect with Donya Wheatley and other workforce champions who are committed to preparing youth for successful futures.

At nsoroWORKS, collaboration with workforce and certification partners is essential to helping young adults transition from foster care into meaningful careers through industry-recognized credentials, hands-on training, and employer partnerships. Together, we are expanding access to opportunities that lead to long-term career success.

nsoroWORKS Macon Crew 2.25.26Dennis, Kayla, Mecca, Michael, Kym, Chastity
07/25/2026

nsoroWORKS Macon Crew 2.25.26
Dennis, Kayla, Mecca, Michael, Kym, Chastity

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FOUNDER & CHAIRMANA founder’s legacy is revealed in the people standing beside him and in the futu...
07/24/2026

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN
A founder’s legacy is revealed in the people standing beside him and in the future standing ahead of him.

As we send our Founder and Chairman, Darrell Mays, into his birthday weekend, this photograph feels especially fitting: Darrell alongside nsoro General Counsel Chris Gilmore and Marquese Dukes, a magnificent Morehouse Man, Class of 2026.

Leadership in three dimensions: vision that built the way, stewardship that protects it, and extraordinary young talent prepared to carry possibility forward.

Darrell, your birthday marks another chapter in a life that has opened doors, altered trajectories, and placed 555 young people closer to the futures they deserve.

Happy Birthday Weekend to the man who saw what was possible and built nsoro to prove it.

🍎 From our scholars, community and team nsoro.

Chris Gilmore

07/18/2026

Culture moved. Vision arrived. Atlanta answered.

At SCAD Atlanta, the SUPERCHARGED® Boost Bus™ rolled in carrying a bold vision: take culture beyond traditional stages, bring opportunity directly into communities, and create spaces where emerging talent can be seen, heard, and connected.

Through Culture In Motion™, founded and executive produced by Kwanza Jones in collaboration with The Apollo, and a special edition of nsoroTALKS, The nsoro Educational Foundation convened Kwanza Jones, Dr. Steven D. Smith, Rodney Bullard, scholars, artists, and community leaders for powerful conversations on leadership, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, artificial intelligence, and the responsibility of shaping what comes next.

Made possible through the Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Initiative, the national Culture In Motion tour transformed investment into impact, bringing The Apollo’s legendary legacy beyond Harlem through the Boost Bus, a mobile cultural hub designed to expand access, creativity, and opportunity in communities nationwide.

Atlanta’s incredible young performers took center stage, reminding us that when talent is met with opportunity, remarkable things happen.

This is what aligned institutions make possible:
✨ Kwanza Jones, whose vision sparked Culture In Motion.
✨ The Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Initiative, whose investment made the national tour possible.
✨ The Apollo, extending its iconic legacy beyond its historic stage.
✨ SUPERCHARGED® and the Boost Bus, bringing culture directly to communities.
✨ SCAD Atlanta, providing an inspiring home for creativity and innovation.
✨ The nsoro Educational Foundation, connecting this experience to the next generation through nsoroTALKS.

Thank you to Kwanza Jones, José E. Feliciano, The Apollo, SCAD Atlanta, and every artist, scholar, partner, and leader who made Atlanta an unforgettable stop on this national journey.

SUPERCHARGED BoostBus SCADAtlanta boostbusofficial The Same House SCAD Kwanza Jones Rodney Bullard

.GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR 250th CELEBRATION! Today, we honor the promise of freedom and the responsibility we share to ...
07/04/2026

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GOD BLESS AMERICA
AND OUR 250th CELEBRATION!

Today, we honor the promise of freedom and the responsibility we share to make that promise real for everyone building a future of stability, purpose, and independence.

On this Fourth of July, we celebrate the families, communities, partners, donors, volunteers, scholars, and alumni who remind us that futures are not built alone. They are shaped by belief, opportunity, generosity, and the steady presence of people who show up.

To the extraordinary nsoro community: thank you for helping us foster futures every day.

We wish you a safe, joyful, and meaningful Independence Day.

Address

Atlanta, GA

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 7pm
Saturday 10am - 3pm

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+14045240807

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