Meet Adrienne Simon | Executive Director & Clerk

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adrienne Simon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adrienne, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think of risk taking as being a necessity. If you never take a chance how can you succeed? I’ve taken risk my entire life whether it be in my personal life or career. When I decided to take a risk and pursue my vision I had very little support, but I kept going. I took financial risk and often times would spend all that I had in order to see events through or to simply help those in need. The thing is every risk I’ve ever taken has taught me some type of lesson. It’s not failure if you take a risk or chance, it’s failure when you don’t.

What should our readers know about your business?
Greater Horizons Youth Center started off as a dream and for my 32nd birthday I wanted to make it official. When I initially started out with this new venture I thought it would be easy, but that was short lived after COVID 19 abruptly changed the way of life for everyone. We started off with absolutely nothing. I didn’t quite understand how to acquire donations or partnerships from corporations and I grew frustrated asking others to support my vision and getting nothing in return. I started donating straight from my paycheck. I took on extra jobs to be able to fund my vision. As I started to excel things just as quickly started to go downhill. The pandemic limited the services we could provide, but I didn’t give up on the vision. I realized that in order for Greater Horizons Youth Center to be a success I had to do more than just fund expenses, but I had to change as a person. I had to learn to let the word “no” stand for “new opportunity”. Although I’m a firm believer in not taking pictures of people receiving help, I learned the importance of documentation and numbers. Without history and numbers it’s hard to acquire donations. I took a risk and spent a nice amount of money to secure a partnership through a third party vendor. This was supposed to help us secure and start gathering donations that we could use for future events. I remember walking into the store and asking for assistance with donations. We were told that the store already had a partner and they weren’t interested in changing partners. The money we spent guaranteed us to be the new partner, but we took the “no”! We prayed about it and just considered it a lost. Almost a year later the store reached out to us to see if we were able to pick up donations. Confused about what exactly happened we accepted and made arrangements to pickup. Upon arrival I was greeted by the new lady in charge. The staff had changed and they decided to give us a try. We don’t have a box truck so every week we found ourselves renting a box truck from Uhaul to do pickups. Now here we were with storage expenses, office expenses, logistic expenses, and no monetary donations. All the extra expenses started to add up and the funds I could typically donate and use to purchase whatever we need for events were just not available. Despite all the curve balls thrown I never quit believing in the vision. Throughout the course of everything I was building relationships that would soon change everything.

Our mission is to empower our youth and give them a support system outside of their immediate households. You never know how high you can go when you have someone believe in you. I want people to know that GHYC isn’t only here today because we believe in our future, but we’re steadily growing and here because our future believes in us. Through all the hardships we have secured partnerships not with just one, but two major retail stores. I’ve received my Presidential Lifetime Achievement award for volunteering. We have students who are volunteering and influencing their peers to do the same. If we start with the person in the mirror we can influence change in many ways but the choice is for each and every one of us to make. Greater Horizons Youth Center isn’t just for the youth it’s for the people. When you hear the story of our organization just know that we’re still writing the story and you can do the same – we believe in you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
A week long trip in Houston isn’t complete without a trip to the Turkey Leg Hut. If you have time the Holocaust museum is a must. We have some of the longest and scenic bike trails throughout the city so scooters and bikes on White Oak Bayou Greenway on a beautiful sunny day is always delightful. While the Galleria is well known for the luxury designers, a walk through Memorial City Mall is just as nice minus all the traffic. The nightlife is fun regardless of your age group. If you’re looking to have a good time with a mature crowd then find out what Molo or the Goodfellas are hosting and you won’t be disappointed. If the club scene isn’t your thing then a stay at the Marriott Marquis with s’mores poolside is always fun.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
If I had to give credit and recognition to those who’ve mentored, supported and loved me along the way I would start with my children. My children have been anchors for me and often times the only ones who gave me the motivation to keep fighting and trying my best to accomplish the things I want to in life. The whole idea of giving back and helping families in need stem from my childhood mentor State Representative Jarvis Johnson.

Mr. Johnson was head of Phoenix Outreach Youth Center in the 5th Ward community. He taught us to have dignity and always be respectful. We traveled on educational field trips and we were introduced to public speaking. The center was more than just a summer or after school place. There was love, support and guidance at the center.

Website: www.GHYCenter.org

Instagram: iamexclusiveadri

Image Credits
Greater Horizons Youth Center