by Gabriel Ramos
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – It’s a
rainy Sunday as Jacqueline Vergez sits in a local Starbucks store. She’s
slightly preoccupied over the logistics of an upcoming fundraiser she has
planned out for her nonprofit organization, JV Outreach, which is dedicated to
spreading the art of dance to children and teenagers in the Atlanta area.
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| Jacqueline Vergez is the founder of JV Outreach. Photo by Gabriel Ramos |
It’s
nothing new. One of the biggest obstacles in running a nonprofit is raising
enough funds to keep programs running and employees paid, and JV Outreach is no
exception.
Even
still, Vergez feels strongly about the organization she singlehandedly started.
Ballroom dance is a hobby she took up after going through a divorce in 1998,
which quickly became a passion. This passion carries on through JV Outreach.
Moving
feet, changing lives
JV
Outreach was originally started as a simple program to give children free dance
lessons out of Roswell’s Waller Park Recreation Center, which is surrounded by
low-income housing. After a few years of annual programs, Vergez decided to
expand the program and register as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2004.
For
Vergez, the opportunity to combine the hobby she’s so passionate about with an
opportunity to get involved in the lives of kids was too good to pass up. She
felt it gave kids a substitute or complementary activity to sports.
“Dancing
provides a lot – social skills, teamwork, leadership, self-confidence,
self-esteem, and that’s what we’re really about. As I tell everybody, it’s like
our programs, yeah, we’re teaching dance steps, but it’s really about building
the kids’ self-esteem and confidence so they feel good about themselves so
they’ll make the right choices and go after their dreams and steer away
hopefully anything negative,” she says.
An
unexpected start
Vergez
states that the inspiration started with a community service project, which
coincided with an accident her daughter, Claudine, had endured. After
Claudine’s time in the hospital, Vergez got creative and with the help of her
daughter, decided to try to raise gift cards for kids staying in Scottish Rite
Children’s Hospital.
The fundraiser wasn’t without its
obstacles.
“I had called all restaurants,
recreation centers, hotels, in the Alpharetta/Roswell location, and I got a lot
of ‘no’s. And they kept asking me what my budget was. When I told them it was zero,
they were like, ‘I can’t help you.’”
Eventually, though, her persistence
paid off. The Hilton Garden Inn in Alpharetta contacted her and allowed her to
use their ballroom space for free, which lead to a snowball of sponsorships and
aid from friends and family. The event proved successful, and Vergez was
motivated to do more.
Dancing toward a
better future for children
After seven years, JV Outreach continues its mission
to get kids dancing, offering classes in salsa, bachata, hip hop, and ballroom.
The programs are typically held as a physical education session for schools
involved, but the interest has grown at a quicker rate than the available
funds.
Fortunately, Vergez has managed to
round up a strong staff, which includes four other board members in addition to
herself and an evolving roster of teachers available. She hopes to eventually build
the program toward all schools in Georgia, and provide scholarships for the
kids involved.
The funds themselves come from a
wide variety of partnerships, including through Fulton County itself.
“Funding for our programs is
provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners,” Vergez states.
JV Outreach’s next fundraiser will
be held at F&B Atlanta, on Dec. 20 from 3-6 p.m. and will be a winetasting
with hors d’oeuvres. For more information on the event, how to donate, and JV
Outreach’s programs, visit www.jvoutreach.org.
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