Spark the Dream envisions a community of responsible hardworking new African Americans citizens proudly serving their homeland with integrity, honesty, and respect, free from racial discrimination and families living and working harmoniously with all people regardless of ethnicity, the color of the skin, the country of origin or creed.

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Spark the Dream is an official 501(c) (3) nonprofit Organization since 2017. The purpose of the organization is to help African immigrants and refugee families to maintain the culture of their motherland and to learn the principles of the culture of the new homeland to gradually integrate in the American system. Most importantly Spark the dream role is to bridge the widening the generation gap through social cultural activities and traditions to bring the children back to their parents.

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The essence of the program materialized from Community Needs Assessment focus group discussions that we conducted. The four groups convened, respectively of youth, elders, women, and parents all from African immigrants and refugee families.

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Among numerous challenges that all new Americans face, the population in all of four participating groups, expressed the fear of losing their children who were assimilating alarmingly faster than necessary in the new culture. In the African culture, children do not talk back to their parents, but they are raised to obey and respect their mothers and fathers as well as their grandparents and other grownups in the community. All groups unanimously came to an agreement to restore family peace by edifying the children on the beautiful cultural values and traditions of the motherland to bring them back to their families.

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Taking in consideration of the focus group findings, Spark the Dream established the intergenerational program to integrate the elderly to impart positive African socio-cultural values, customs and traditions to young children and the youth, through folktales and other genres.