Meet Danielle Washington | Non-Profit Founder & Executive Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danielle Washington and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danielle, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The initial idea for Queen Academy, Inc. stemmed from my work as an educator. I taught middle school for several years, and during that time I noticed that many of my female students were unprepared to face all the challenges and social pressures that come with transitioning to high school. Based on that experience, I started Queen Academy in 2013 as an after-school mentoring club. When I became born again in 2014, the Lord Jesus Christ really shifted my focus and helped me to understand that a genuine relationship with Him was the only solution to the rejection, trauma, and mental health issues that many of my female students were battling every day. Over the years, I continued to facilitate Queen Academy as a mentoring program in schools and churches I attended. In 2022, we officially launched as Queen Academy, Incorporated, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization serving young women in foster care, alternative schools, and kinship care through Christian mentoring and discipleship.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Queen Academy, Inc. is a faith-based non-profit organization designed to support and empower young women in Georgia’s foster care system and alternative education settings through Christian mentoring and discipleship. Our programs focus on promoting Biblical principles, positive self-worth and development, as well as providing practical life skills instruction, academic enrichment, career exploration, entrepreneurship, and community service. We cater to young women who have been rejected and cast out of their schools and homes, helping them to understand their identity as Queens and daughters of God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Specifically, we operate two programs: the Queen Academy Mentoring Program and the Queen Academy Residential Program. The mentoring program is a comprehensive, Bible-based youth development program for girls between the ages of 11-17 in alternative school settings that aims to instill and promote Christian principles, positive self-worth, and positive growth of adolescent young women through a focus on our REGAL core values and customized curriculum. The Queen Academy Residential Program operates as a traditional foster home. Both of our programs aim to increase school attendance, increase academic performance, and decrease behavior incidents resulting in suspensions for program participants. Our goal is for participants in our mentoring program to be readmitted to their home school programs as appropriate and residential participants to be reunited with their families.

In establishing these programs, I definitely encountered my share of obstacles, especially as it relates to navigating the foster care system. Currently, I am licensed in both Georgia and South Carolina, but the process took a very long time. I began the process of becoming licensed in Georgia in 2018 and didn’t begin receiving placements until 2020. It took nearly 2 years to get through the process! There are so many hurdles that prospective foster parents have to jump over just to be licensed, and I experienced just how broken the system really is. It was discouraging, but I just continued to pray and remain patient with the process. And of course, anytime you work with children and teens with trauma, you automatically have to have a level of patience and understanding to be able to give them the support they need. With both mentoring young women and being a foster parent, one key lesson I have learned is not to take it personally when the young people I am working with are acting out or exhibiting challenging behaviors. Patience and prayer is definitely key!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Great question! I love good food and good weather, so my itinerary would definitely include some time outdoors at somewhere like the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Grant Park, or at a community festival. Next up would be some delicious brunch at the Breakfast Boys or Atlanta Breakfast Club, and then a game night or movie night indoors with friends. I’m pretty low-key!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shout out Dr. Julia Daniely, Director of Personalized Learning and Alternative Education for Bibb County School District. Dr. Daniely has been a huge supporter of Queen Academy, Inc., allowing us to partner with SOAR Academy, the district’s alternative school, to facilitate our programming. This has been our first official school partnership, and thus far the program has been a huge success. We sincerely appreciate her and the SOAR Academy team’s partnership and support.

Website: www.QueenAcademy.org

Instagram: @QueenAcademyMentoring

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/queen-academy-inc/

Facebook: @QueenAcademyMentoring