The Panzou Project is a great asset to the crime fighting abilities of the North Miami Beach Police Department and is an integral part of of local gang prevention and intervention efforts. We have partnered with Panzou for many years and support it wholeheartedly!
As a human being living in the society,we should take responsibility for what we have done to the whole society. apparently, what we have done is much less than enough. maybe we cannot do a so-called great event.maybe we cannot change the entire world. but, i want you to believe that we are the master of the future, so we can bring our benefits to our friends, our neighbors, people who are trapped into a terrible y bad condition. by doing the little things we can also bring benefits to the society.that the reason why Laura Kallus recommend everyone of us to lend our hands to the people in needs.
I know the founder of this organization, Laura Kallus. She is selflessly dedicated to the cause of helping these youth change their lives for the better. This not only helps them but helps create a safer environment for the rest of the community. We need to treat the problem, not just deal with the results of gangs. Prevention is key to lowering recivitism. Laura understands the impact of esteeming every human being and the power of building up our youth. PanZou project is an awesome, respectable organization that deserves your volunteer hours, your donations and your recognition.
I met Laura Kallus a few years ago, when she came to my house to buy a large portable water container, as a Gift for a young man in her program who wanted to start a mobile car wash business. She had a group of young people with her, and it was a pleasure to meet them all which I have never forgotten.
Crime has gone down in our neighborhood and surrounding areas, as a direct result of the help this organization offers to at risk young men and women of the community. I appreciate the emails that let me know about this amazing, worthwhile nonprofit, which I am glad to support.
Review from Guidestar
This organization has the capacity to provide quality services to young people - offering them a way to out of violence. The amazing thing is, it does it with heart and soul and on a shoe-string budget.
Review from Guidestar
Panzou is the kind of urban youth project that should be replicated in culturally sensitive ways to all our major cities. Laura Kallus embodies the social glue holding heart, mind and soul of the disenfranchised together. How that might be cloned remains one of life's mysteries.
Laura went through our Anthropology Sustainable Development Program in the early-mid 1990s and we continue to smile whenever we learn about yet another social breakthrough that builds a more pluralistic and just society.
Please fund this project!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeff Boyer
Anthropology & Founder
Sustainable Development Program
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
lkallus 01/30/2011
Dr. Boyer! You are not just my university mentor, but my life mentor as well. You changed my life many years ago and that trajectory has landed me here. Thank you for believing in me and PanZOu. Laura
Review from Guidestar
PanZou is the best thing that could have ever happened to Miami. They have a proven positive track record for the reformation of gang members. Laura Kallus is the single most compassionate person I know. She lives and breathes for the otherwise forgotten. When society wants to throw up their hands and throw these kids away, PanZou picks them up, dusts them off, and empowers them to prove the statistics wrong. They teach our youth that it is possible to turn their lives around despite the mistakes they have made. PanZou works tirelessly to make sure that every individual knows their own personal value, to remind them that there is more to live for than the hustle. Laura and her staff are mothers, peers, counselors, and protectors of the wayward adolescents in the Miami Dade community. Without PanZou and the angels that work there, so many would remain lost. God speed in all you do PanZou!
Review from Guidestar
The representatives with this program work with some of our population and they are phenomenal. They truly move mountains for their clients.
Review from Guidestar
I also work in the field of prevention/intervention programs and cannot overstate the importance of this program to our inner-city youth. So many people give up on these youth without ever trying to understand why they become who they become or how we can help to rectify our community short-comings in not being there for these kids. These youth grow up in circumstances that no child should have to know or experience and yet they are survivors and somehow manage to survive poverty; fatherless homes; dysfunctional homes; violent schools and neighborhoods, fierce peer pressure; no support and no resources. PanZou Project is there to help them when no one else is. Bravo PanZou and brava Laura Kallus!
Review from Guidestar
panzou is great program for the community helping teens and on they goals and they carers on plans on they futures when they finish school. panzou is great place be at you should try it you learn a lot experiences being there .
Review from Guidestar
The level of the commitment of its staff and leadership to the young folks they work with is unparalleled. They are 100% across the board in demonstrating their integrity, competence and dedication to their mission. PAN ZOU is on of the few organizations I know of (actually, the only one I know of) capable of providing meaningful community crisis intervention and violence prevention and effective individual intervention in the lives of the young people they serve. Because PAN ZOU has paid its dues, it has earned the all important trust and respect of the people it serves. That is why PAN ZOU is uniquely situated to provide alternative visions of a gang and violence free future for critically "at risk" Haitian-American and immigrant youth that they can believe. You can tell that the organization is powered largely with hope, faith and love....that’s the only way to explain the fantastic record of accomplishment PAN ZOU has achieved with the limited but committed resource assistance they’ve been able to amass thus far. They deserve as much support as is available....and more.
James S.
Review from Guidestar
As the IT Regional Director for the Department of Juvenile Justice I have followed the progress of the PANZOU project through out the years. They have without a doubt a professional staff that has a true passion for helping Floridas youth. But no organization can have the success as well as the impact that the PANZOU project has had without a great leader. Mr. Kallus has been instrumental in their success and along with her constant motivation to help our kids mixed in with a passionate staff and a well design program this is the perfect recipe for success. I expect nothing but the best from them know and in the future.
Review from Guidestar
Pan Zou Project is altogether one of the most amazing programs I have ever seen in a community setting. Imagine a place where teens can find answers to everyday problems and end up with a changed mindset. They are a great program with the youth in truly in mind, they'll go out of their way for just one life.
IVE NEVER BEEN SO INSPIRED BY SUCH DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT WHEN IT COMES TO THE PANZOU PROJECT
Review from Guidestar
In my lifetime I haven't seen a program so center on helping the youth of North Miami Beach as Panzou Project. Their style of intervention with the youths have help it be effected and help garner a respect that most non profit in the same cause would beg for, not many can have the respect of the city hall, police and the youth. Although Panzou was hit with a financial crunch they still have their door open to service the community. I seen for myself the impact that Panzou style has been a positive for the community.
Review from Guidestar
I have been apart of the PanZOu family since 2004. What attracted me to this wonderful program was its desire to provide direct services to Haitian youth in our community at-risk gang and youth violence. As a Haitian-American professional, I knew that this population needed these direct services and wanted to be apart of the movement. I have seen firsthand the love and support PanZOu staff give to its clients. Whether it is being in the delivery room when a client is alone giving birth to their first child or digging deep into our wallets to provide our clients with a safe spring break that includes camping in the wood to tours of local universities to see what they have to offer. PanZOu works everyday to continue encouraging our youth to starve for the best in life and most importantly to dream of a future. PanZOu is a place where all we provide is free of charge and I hope that we can continue to provide our services for years to come!
THE PANZOU PROJECT IS A GOOD PLEAS TO BE PEOPLE IN PANZOU SH U SOME LOVE.1 IT HELP U FIND A JOB ANB TAKE U TO EAT IT BE FUN
I am a police officer with the City of North Miami Beach. I have watched the Panzou program grow since the day it began. They have reached out to the youth in the community as no other program ever has. They turn no one away, regardless of how they are perceived by others. Many of the youth that they have served, and are continuing to serve have changed their lives for the better. The Panzou project has impacted the city of NMB greatly.
I worked as the Job Developer/Community Resource Coordinator for the PanZOu Project. PanZOu is a home to the curious, unsure, or forgotten souls seeking out a place to share their experiences, connect with their peers and mentors, and open doors that were locked before they walked into the welcoming arms of the PanZOu community. In my position at the organization, I had the opportunity to touch the lives of a few hundred youth seeking out job opportunities, community service possibilities, and positive places to move into for their future dreams. These kids are tomorrow's leaders, dreamers, and are a part of our community today. We must be the change we wish to see in the world. PanZOu affords this opportunity to all those who walk through their doors and reaches out to those who may be a little shy in entering. PanZOu allowed me to experience a dream opportunity everyday by letting my visions melt into the mission of the agency. PanZOu helped my dreams as an employee take flight as I was able to creatively find new opportunities to enrich the lives of the youth of PanZOu.
I am a client at panzou for over two years. In my opinion, Panzou is one of the best programs that been part of.. First of all,Panzou has the best outreach staff, when ever i needed some body to talk too the door is always open.Panzou does not pass judge on any one and they take the time to listen and work with you to get you through your problems.I've been part of the "on the job training program",where i was taught how to put a resume together,how to fill out job applicatons,how to conduct yourself at school and work.Panzou also help me complete my community service hours.
My name is Charles I started out a client for PanZOu and still am .They help me with a lot,school,court, and getting a job. They helped me start my own business.They took us on trips to New Orleans and Tampa and introduced us a lot of new things. I don't know where i would be without PanZOu thank you Ms Laura.
My name is henry joseph, i am 20 years old now, i entered panzou when i was 15 years old i was a trouble maker at school and home so one day my mom recommended me to a program called panzou so when i got there i seen nice staff members and they welcome me there and made me fill like i was home. sometimes i wish i can be 15 again, but i change my life around and now im going to college soon i want to thank laura kallus for being a second mother to me thank you panzou.
My name is jay buck, when I first heard about Panzou it was January of 2006, I entered the Panzou program because i was in search of guidance. I was skipping school,gang banging, and I was just a menace to society. One day I met a lady named Laura Kallus (Panzou director) she told me about the program so I tried it out. The staff their were so nice to me they made me feel like I had a family for once in my life. they made sure i went to class, help me get a job, and get back to reality and focus on what was really important...school. My experience their was so great that i encouraged my brother to enroll their too. Now i am a college graduate, and got my life on the right path. "Thanks Panzou"
PanZou has an amazing program for the at-risk youth of North Miami/North Miami Beach. I've spoken to the youths firsthand, and they view the staff as their second family. In some cases, PanZou is their only family. PanZou is a place they can come to get guidance, job skills and encouragement in the most difficult of circumstances. Laura Kallus and the rest of the staff are some of the most dedicated, caring people that I know!
PanZOu Project is the only comprehensive youth gang reduction program operating in South Florida. It helps keep kids out of gangs through prevention and intervention programs; helps youths returning from prison find activities other than gang "work," like jobs. Additionally, the project coordinates activities with the local police gang unit. The kids with whom the project works find social success where before they found crime.
lkallus 01/30/2011
How nice to hear from you again! I have thought of you often. Thank you so much for the kind words of support. I really means a lot to me and the boys. Happy new year!