Meet LaSean Tutt

Today we’d like to introduce you to LaSean Tutt.

Thanks for sharing your story with us LaSean. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
How you started: Before Dreams with Open Arms was a name I was working this passion at the age of 13, I saw my cousin of the same age get kicked out of her mother’s house when she got pregnant, I would sneak her in our house when my mom was sleep so that she could clean, eat and sleep. I had a passion for helping teen mothers.

Years passed, 2002, I met a woman named Joanna Oldham who suggested that I start journaling about it. Joanna pushed me to take my idea and make it a reality. I continued imagining the place I had seen. In 2003, Joanna pushed me to do my own business set up & 501. I applied to form the 501©(3) nonprofit and within a few months, the organization, Dreams with Open Arms (DWOA), was up and running.
How you got to where you are today.

I got to where I am today by hard work, sheer determination and strategic partnership, which allow us to grow and bring awareness, prevention and intervention toward underserved young people population. I believe that the underrepresented and underserved need the same resources as those who have access. In our endeavors, we recognized that not just young people needed a heighten awareness. Now, we serve all populations through our programs, campaigns and initiatives.

It all started in 2001, I was coming off one of the most difficult years of my life. I had just been through a difficult divorce and was recovering from a wreck in which an 18-wheeler crashed into my car. I saw the truck coming from a distance so I put two of my wheels on the soft side of the road and slowed down to 40 miles per hour. I was like ‘OK, if I just move to the side and anything happens, I won’t be affected. I don’t know when he hit me. One minute, I knew I was going, the next minute, I woke up in the hospital. The trauma from the crash forced me to quit her job as a corrections officer in McCormick Correctional Institution and leave her home in Calhoun Falls to move in with her sister in Atlanta while she figured out her next step. Though the physical wounds from the crash healed, the mental ones remained, leaving me nervous to drive and trying to piece my life back together. One Sunday, while attending a church service, I had a vision. I don’t know if you call it a premonition or a daydream — because I was wide awake sitting in church — and the pastor was up there preaching, and all of a sudden, I just saw a building. In this building, there were pregnant women coming in and out and there were young women and some of them were on playgrounds with little children, and I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of cool.
Not long after, she and a handful of volunteers were doing youth outreach at apartment complexes all around the Atlanta-metropolitan area, handing out a condom, educational and discussing sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy rates. We did condom distributions and that turned into a Step Up and Be Safe campaign. We just went out and hung out with the kids and talked.

We have received a proclamation from DeKalb CEO, Mayors from the 10 counties and the City of Atlanta and letter of support from then-Governor Deal.

In 2008, Tutt met Chad Cornick, who had spent the two decades prior doing outreach with young people suffering from mental illness. Cornick started helping out with the nonprofit in 2009. Cornick didn’t get on board immediately the but once I explained it to him, he got involved. Cornick said, “LaSean is loving and caring and wants to help the world. She’s a fighter and a trailblazer.”

“They’ll knock on our door at 2:30 am in the morning and be like, ‘OK, we need condoms,’ and we’ll give them a Walmart shopping bag full of condoms and be like, ‘Take it to the party. Give it to whoever you see. They don’t even need to say anything. We just give them a bag. You don’t have to explain anything, you don’t have to tell us your life story, you don’t even have to hold a conversation. All you have to do is say, ‘I came for this,’ you get it and you can go. I’m just ecstatic they’re being responsible.

Elizabeth McLendon, a mobilizer with the AIDS Health Foundation — the nonprofit that provides Tutt with condoms — said she holds Tutt in high esteem. “If every town in South Carolina had a person with LaSean’s initiative, everything going on in the communities in South Carolina would change, that’s how high I hold her in regard,” she said.

I am very happy with the progress of Dreams with Open Arms has made and hope to see it continue to grow. I still split my time between GA, NC & SC and I’m still working to expand our work into Florida.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Has it been a smooth road? Not at all.

If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our main struggle was the prevalence of an abstinence-only mindset that presented us with different challenges while getting condoms and educational materials into the hands of young people without prejudice. Our undying faith towards rejection from the civic and religious organizations was another struggle. We tried not to offend the civic and religious population and to still get the message out, finding and rallying volunteers.

The two of us worked to overcome those challenges, reaching out to teens in the area any way they could. Cornick worked as a football coach at Redan Park and began educating his athletes about the importance of hygiene, puberty and reproductive health. Before long, a large group of teens knew our house was a safe place they could come to without being judged.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dreams with Open Arms – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
What do you do:
Dreams with Open Arms has devoted its energy to passionately advocating for and supporting young people. We are focused on the success of our young people. Ensuring a future in which our young people gain the knowledge and skills they need to delay early parenthood, complete high school and enter adulthood healthy, empowered ready for college, career and life.

2005 – Passionate Parenting and Supports Matter since its inception have encountered over 500 adolescent and adolescents who are parents.
2009 – Challenges & Choices PSA and Let’s Talk video PSA.
2010 – Warming up Atlanta and Warming up Atlanta Faith in Music Concert.
2011 – Step Up & Be Safe GA Campaign
2014 – Step Up & Be Safe SC Peer (SUBS) Advocate & Campaign in SC & NC and Camp Jewels in SC.
What do you specialize in: We specialize in hard nose, upfront in your face advocacy and aggressive street presence through SUBS for reproductive health awareness and advocacy for young people who are at risk or not.

What are you known for:
Step Up & Be Safe Campaign and mobile unit mission is to increase awareness of the use of condoms and contraceptives within our community. Step Up & Be Safe (SUBS) is a mobile unit youth-led grassroots movement to make the U.S. a sexually healthy nation. Each year, SUBS members give out condoms in their communities, educate their peers about sexual and reproductive health, and understand the policies that affect young people’s health and lives. This is a mobilize effort that’s currently working in four states, FL, GA, NC & SC. We go into at-risk communities spread awareness about unintended pregnancies, STD’s including HIV.

2018 Lives Impact GA 51,958 Condoms and Educational Materials Distributed 110,713

What are you most proud of as a company? The ability to help young people in any aspect of their lives especially reproductive health.

What sets you apart from others? We are always in the trenches and on the front line to help young people.

Who else deserves credit – have you had mentors, supporters, cheerleaders, advocates, clients or teammates that have played a big role in your success or the success of the business? If so – who are they and what role did they plan / how did they help.

Joanna Oldham was the person who helps push this idea into a reality by getting to commit to doing the written work. For that push, we have been around for 16 years now.

Chad Cornick is the Step Up & Be Safe coordinator for Dreams with Open Arms. Mr. Cornick is a supporter, volunteer and teammate. He took my idea of Step Up & Be Safe mobile unit and made it a reality by planning and pulling together all need elements to make sure that the unit does exactly it needs to do.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
To continue to go into parts of the community where the people do not have access to the same resources as the general populace. Creating a young board of directors to steer our organization into the future. threw their eyes, experiences and encounter will have the answer for their current and future situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dreamsfirst.org
• Phone: 404.772.1880
• Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
• Instagram: Dreams.First
• Facebook: DreamsFirst
• Twitter: DreamsFirst1

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