Educate. Equip. Empower.

The purpose of For a Real Change, Inc. is to educate, equip, and empower individuals to achieve their best possible life.
Our mission is to empower youth to improve their quality of life and those within their reach through education, applied learning, and meaningful service experiences.

Our Story

For a Real Change, Inc. was incorporated on June 12, 2020, by Founder Aurelia Spaulding in Bowling Green, KY. Aurelia attributes the founding of For a Real Change, Inc. to a series of events taking place over the course of seven years.

She explains her “move forward” moment came after learning how much her younger cousins enjoyed reading and learning but opportunities for learning outside the classroom were limited in their area.

She believed (and still believes) that access to opportunities in childhood can significantly impact a young person’s life trajectory. Aurelia made a personal commitment to ensure youth with lower family incomes could access quality opportunities to learn outside the classroom.

Aurelia brings more than a decade of experience in programming for college-level leadership and community engagement to For a Real Change, Inc. She founded the organization in honor of her late grandmothers Mary E. Spaulding and Doris Bumpus. Their spirit of service, community, and advocacy is woven within the programs.

We seek to:

Identify and address obstacles that impede the academic success of underrepresented young leaders.
Create collaborative spaces for young people from all backgrounds to address social issues important to them.
Provide avenues for youth to develop knowledge that empowers them to lead in careers and spaces that currently lack racial/ethnic and socio-economic diversity.
Seek to support youth in identifying how to break the cycle of poverty in their family.
How do we do this?

For a Real Change provides educational programming, events, digital communication, and meaningful service endeavors. We define meaningful service as intentional interactions between individuals and the community that address specific needs and ultimately improve the quality of life for the areas in which they serve (Spaulding, A. & Cunningham, L. 2014). Use of inspirational and instructional speakers, applied and service learning, mentoring, and positive youth development will also contribute to addressing the above objectives.
Why the name?

We value our community partners and try to find ways to work with other organizations to reach more youth and increase our impact together. For a Real Change can be broken down to mean, For Anchoring our Reach through Education and Applied Learning to Cultivate Humanitarians Acting for the Next Generation to Excel.

Board of Directors

The For a Real Change, Inc. Board of Directors meets monthly and remain our first supporters. Each board member volunteers with at least one For a Real Change, Inc. program and promotes our values in other areas of their lives.