Expo
Meet the woman behind the movement
Layla Bluefort, MSW is the proud mother of 3 adult daughters! My biggest regret as a mom was deciding that my daughters were going to a 4 year college based on their grades as they matriculated through K-12. I have to admit that I did not know about "Apprenticeships" and assumed that Skills and Trade routes were only for "at-risk" youth. Like most moms I really wanted to be able to brag that my 3 daughters graduated from a 4 year University. I also needed my daughters to be better than my 17 year old self that graduated high school, 8 months pregnant with a 1.67 GPA! I realized that I was so busy setting goals for them that I never truly took the time to figure out "What problems they wanted to solve!"
As my youngest daughter got into high school her behaviors and motivation at school changed. In hindsight, I realized that what she was really saying was "Momma I don't want to go to college"! However, when I started researching alternatives for her I realized that it wasn't easy.
I don't like that Skills and trades were taken out of the schools system and moved to the Criminal Justice System. Nor do I like that I myself have over $200k in Student loan debt and the reality that I made a bad investment.
My goal is to provide access to all youth, ages 16-24 and their families, in Charlotte, NC and surrounding counties, cities, and states access to information on current job openings, internships, and/or apprenticeship opportunities, industry certifications opportunities, and on-the-job training available in skills and trade industries!
My Story
In late 2018 the founder, Layla Bluefort, youngest daughter started getting in trouble in school
and having mental health crises. During this journey as a mother, she realized that she had
created a home that only supported “college after high school” and that her daughter did not want
College and started resenting school, education, and everything that represented the journey to
“college”.
As a result of this truth, she realized she needed to spend just as much energy on exposing her
own daughter to every alternative to college. As she started to prepare to tell her youngest
daughter to “careers that don’t require a college degree” she was also supporting her middle daughter’s
college prep journey and realized something was missing. She discovered that our community was
missing “Momma I don’t want to go to college” conversations.
So on February 29, 2020, the Inaugural “Momma I Don’t Want to Go to College” Skills and Trade Career Expo was hosted. Because of the success of the event, The Katartizo Initiative Group was incorporated on March 10, 2020, to continue
the work.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
704-750-5240