Convicted2Change

When we started Serve N Slay, our mission was clear Serve Your Purpose. Slay Your Doubters. The focus of our brand is not only empowerment but also giving back to our community from Indianapolis to Louisville. While counting down my time on Facebook, which I often do in order to maintain time management or else I will find myself lost in the newest Facebook opinion poll, baby pictures, familial news etc I came across a post featuring a First Annual The Youth Stop The Violence Water Extravaganza. At the bottom of the flyer was a request for vendors, donations, and sponsors for the event. I wanted to know more about this event and the organization, Convicted2Change. I posed the question to Michael ,our Vice President, to receive his thoughts and hopefully his “thumbs up of approval” for us to move forward with inquiring the business needs of this organization’s event. He obliged and from that point forward our partnership with Convicted2Change was born. As I shared, the first step was understanding just how exactly we were even going to help. We’re still a small business of two and for us to be of any assistance we need to make sure that we’re honest with ourselves about the resources we have at our disposal. Grateful we were to hear back from Convicted2Change’s Founder Jon LIndsey who provided us with an immediate response of “I have been racking my mind on how I could get some shirts made for the volunteers and the youth at our event. Maybe that’s a sponsorship Serve N Slay could provide.” Well, ABSOLUTELY we could! Why wouldn’t we? While our point of focus has been to develop and distribute our shirts for profit through our store, we also have the ability to create custom shirts upon requests. To say I was excited about seeing the marriage of our purpose with Jon’s call to action with Convicted2Change’s event would be an understatement.  I immediately contacted Michael so we could form a gameplan about how to move forward. During our process from this point forward, Jon’s quick response to questions posed in emails, design templates that were submitted to him for approval etc made for an easy partnership heading into the weeks and days of the event. On August 3rd, we had the pleasure of attending and presenting custom shirts at Convicted2Change’s First Annual The Youth Stop The Violence Water Extravaganza at Military Park in Indianapolis, IN. This event was AMAZING. It was filled with children and adults, bounce houses, a custom made Spider Man motorcycle, water guns, a DJ playing music to keep spirits lifted, vendors, Xbox, and also FREE FOOD while also providing one of those most important messages which is violence and sex trafficking prevention. Throughout the park were displays sharing no weapons were allowed to align with the message of the event which was to put the guns down and pick up a water gun. All of this was made possible through the hard work of the Convicted2Change team and donations from both big and small companies alike with no additional expenses to those taking part in the event. It was not until we later interviewed Jon that the meaning behind the location was shared. Military Park is a local memorial park residing in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Historically this site was preserved as a military camp for soldiers during the 1800’s. Jon’s vision was to memorialize those that have lost loved ones due to acts of violence in the city. Mothers, fathers, children alike that have lost their lives or the lives of their loved ones at the hands of senseless violence. My mind was blown away at the concept but also to see all of these people coming together to simply enjoy the message and fellowship that Convicted2Change fostered. To see children and adults seemingly feeling nostalgic while running throughout this park with water hose, buckets filled with water, and water guns was a sight to see that even ServeNSlay began to take part in the activities after a young child baited our Vice President to take part in the festivities by daring him to do something once she squirted him with a water gun. How could anyone turn down being a participant in an event such as this. What was also a beautiful site was to see the role that Jon’s family played a role in this event. It was very hard to pick individuals that shared the same familial line as Jon so it wasn’t until I saw his sister Joi, whom I attended school with, and we were introduced to other members of his family that those individuals were identified otherwise everyone was family at the park just as Jon and Convicted2Change intended. On August 4th, Convicted2Change escorted 50 (30 youth & 20 chaperones) to Kings Island Amusement Park for the day free of charge. It was there that they wore their Convicted2Change we presented just a day prior. Not only were the shirts a means of sharing their message but also the bright sky blue tees also assisted with identifying members of the group which was important in such a large area as an amusement park. A week after their events, we were able to sit down with Jon to discuss Convicted2Change, past, present, and future. Convicted2Change is a non profit organization directed at assisting individuals with misdemeanor or felonious legal cases on their records with gaining employment in various fields as well as developing and building skill sets to further professional endeavors through courses, mentorship, and ministry through action. To see more of our one on one interview with Jon Lindsey and others visit our YouTube channel at The Serve N Slay Life https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCisfpNE4UOf2Plqa0eib1vg/videos. 

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Email: convicted2change16@gmail.com

Phone: 3178002788