The Home EC Center was founded in 2021 with the mission to reconnect youth to a lost art and to bring home economics back into people’s lives.
With an eye to the future, Co-Founder and Executive Director Sydney Sonnier, believes that home economics will prepare people with not only important basic skills, but also build responsibility and community. With classes like cake design, woodshop, sewing, budgeting, youth career programs, visual arts and more, Sonnier is excited to welcome the community to her artistic and creative space located in the Paradise Building.
Q. What are some of the programs or initiatives that you’re most proud of for 2022? What are some goals for 2023? A. We are most proud of our Safe Sitters in 2022. Safe Sitter® prepares students ages 9 to 15 to be self-reliant when they’re home alone, watching younger siblings or babysitting. Our students learned life-saving skills, such as how to rescue someone choking, and used mannequins to practice choking rescue and CPR.
For 2023, we are proud to relaunch our Youth Career Program starting in January. Our Youth Career Program comprises four career paths: entrepreneurship, music production, multimedia development and writing. We’ve partnered with exceptional music producers and vocal coaches, best-selling authors, publishing companies, media production companies and entrepreneurs to engage in this program, which will lead to promising developments for our scholars.
Q. How is your nonprofit having an impact in Westchester/Playa and beyond? A. The Home EC Center directly impacts Westchester/Playa by offering community collaboration and development possibilities. Our youth have the opportunity to join our youth development forums, “HeMatters” and “GirlTalk,” which are shaped around peer-to-peer discussion. Both groups offer our local youth a safe space to develop vital skills in a network of peers. HeMatters and GirlTalk are free, and participants are welcome to join all year long.
We also offer opportunities for adults to network with empowering individuals in our women’s and men’s groups.
Both our youth and adult groups volunteer their time once a month by partnering with local nonprofit organizations such as the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and more, to help better our community through engagement.
Q. What is the best way for people to support or get involved with The Home EC Center? A. The best way to support our organization is by donations of money or time. The Home EC Center is always seeking innovative and empowering individuals that are inspired to make a change in our community. Community members can support our organization’s mission by being a mentor for our youth, sharing a few moments in our empowerment groups, or assisting at one of our upcoming events. Please visit our website for more information at thehomeeccenter.org/contact.
Q. What’s the number one thing the community should know about The Home EC Center? A. One thing the community should know about our nonprofit is our mission! We strive to reconnect the youth with lost arts and bring home economics back into our lives, which will help better our future. Not only does home economics prepare our society with basic skills, but it also builds responsibility.
We believe that everyone has a prolific mindset within. Sometimes that creative bone is enlightened by culinary art, painting sunsets, writing poetry or fixing cars. Our goal is that no matter what sparks your light, we hope our space and instructors can magnify and strengthen those skills.
Learn more at thehomeeccenter.org.