FOUR PRINCIPLES:

Concrete Roses is geared to nurture the goals, aspirations, and ambitions of our mentees and help them blossom into successful young ladies.

Character

Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship

Leadership

Cultivate skills to motivate, empathize and build relations

Education

Develop strategies to achieve full academic potential

Service

Voluntarily serving our community wholeheartedly

What is special about

Concrete Roses?

The Concrete Rose Foundation is overseen by an Executive Board who has over 35 years of collective experience as Educators in the Alachua County School District.

HOW DO WE FIX THE PROBLEM?

We need more voices speaking up and advocating for the minority youth in our community

STATISTICS

Alachua County has the largest racial achievement gap in the state of Florida
Alachua County has the fourth highest out of school suspension rate for Black students of all Florida school districts.
Only 26.7% of Black students as compared with 71.5% of White students in Alachua County scored at or above grade level in English Language Arts on the Florida State Assessment (FSA) (FLDOE, 2018a).
Schools with magnet programs have a 66.8% achievement gap between Black and White students in ELA (SBAC, 2017; FLDOE, 2018b).
Black students comprise 35.5% of school population but account for 70.6% of district suspensions (FLDOE 2018b; FLDOE, 2018c).

MISSION

The Mission of The Concrete Rose Foundation is to embrace, empower, and educate minority girls and equip them with the skills to make positive life choices.

VISION

The Concrete Roses Foundation envisions a community with a constant effort to cultivate a sense of self-worth and equality in adolescent

minorities which will afford them the same opportunities regardless of their race, gender, environment or socio-economic status.

BELIEFS

We believe that developing proper etiquette, public speaking skills, self-esteem, effective communication, self-love and leadership skills are the keys to maximizing the potential of all girls regardless of their background.

PURPOSE

The purpose of The Concrete Rose Foundation is to provide advocacy and assistance to minority youth through targeted mentorship to minimize the risk factors attributed to adolescents in underserved communities.

Message from our President:

Ashley McClellan

President &
Executive Director

I founded The Concrete Rose Foundation in 2019 at a local elementary school in Gainesville, Florida. As a teacher at an urban, inner-city school the seats in my classroom were often filled with students from disadvantaged neighborhoods. Being a young, African-American female teacher gave me the opportunity to relate to students that had no connection with my fellow colleagues. It wasn’t long before I found myself sharing a unique bond with many students that had, unfortunately, been deemed unteachable or a lost cause.

As a 2015 graduate of a Historically Black University, I considered it my responsibility to uphold the motto of my beloved alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University, “Enter to learn and depart serve.” Thus, I made a pledge to serve my community by embracing and empowering the at risk youth of society. Rita Pierson said “Every child deserves a champion. An adult that will never give up on them and insist that they become the best person that they can possibly be.” Our society continues to display an inability to develop a rapport with minority youth. Thus, they are either overlooked or labeled as troublesome or problematic. When they are actually misunderstood and underrepresented. I believe that all children should be afforded the same opportunities regardless of their environment or socioeconomic status. The constant effort to cultivate a sense of self-worth and equality in at risk youth is my vision for the The Concrete Rose foundation.

Ashley McClellan

Founder & President