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Tag: V.J. Smith

  • Joining the MAD DADs Neighborhood Cleanup in North Minneapolis

    Joining the MAD DADs Neighborhood Cleanup in North Minneapolis

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    Volunteers from the Church of Scientology Twin Cities and The Way to Happiness Association pitch in on MAD DADS cleanup in a rough neighborhood.

    Press Release
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    updated: Jun 28, 2019


    MINNEAPOLIS, June 28, 2019 (Newswire.com)
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    Studies show that cleaning up neighborhoods can reduce crime and violence, and that’s right in the line of the country of MAD DADS and volunteers from the Church of Scientology who joined forces in a cleanup of the volatile neighborhood around the intersection of Emerson Avenue North and 31st Street in Minneapolis.

    MAD DADS is a coalition of African-American men and parents who are fed up with gang violence and illegal drugs. Minneapolis-based MAD DADS National President and Executive Director, V.J. Smith, organized the cleanup and posted about it on his Facebook page.

    Cars honked their approval as the volunteers collected the trash, including a huge volume of broken glass, and hauled it away. And far from being an arduous afternoon, it was fun.

    V.J. Smith grew up on the streets as a foster youth and was introduced to organized crime at an early age. He turned his own life around and his passion is mentoring and helping young people change the course of their lives. He is featured in an episode of Voices for Humanity on the Scientology Network.

    In cities around the world, volunteers from The Way to Happiness Foundation chapters carry out cleanups to improve their communities. A common-sense moral code, written by humanitarian and author L. Ron Hubbard, The Way to Happiness contains 21 basic principles that guide one to a better quality of life, including the precept: “Safeguard and Improve Your Environment,” which states:

    “There are many things one can do to help take care of the planet. They begin with the idea that one should. They progress with suggesting to others they should. Man has gotten up to the potential of destroying the planet. He must be pushed on up to the capability and actions of saving it. It is, after all, what we’re standing on.”

    The Church of Scientology and its members are proud to participate in community partnerships that reduce crime and safeguard and improve the environment.

    Source: ScientologyNews.org

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  • Proud to Be Helping MAD DADS Save the Lives of Minneapolis Kids

    Proud to Be Helping MAD DADS Save the Lives of Minneapolis Kids

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    National MAD DADS President, and founder and President of the Minneapolis chapter, V.J. Smith is reclaiming the neighborhoods of Minneapolis with the help of The Way to Happiness

    Press Release
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    updated: Feb 14, 2018


    MINNEAPOLIS, February 14, 2018 (Newswire.com)
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    V.J. Smith is on a mission to get men to stand up and take the community back from drugs and crime. He has been described as “a turnaround specialist” — he turned his own life around and now specializes in helping the youth of the community do the same.

    MAD DADS stands for Men Against Destruction, Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder, a nonprofit founded in 1989 in Omaha, Nebraska, by men and fathers who were fed up with gang violence and illegal drugs in their community. Smith is national MAD DADS president and founder and president of the group’s Minneapolis chapter.

    Happiness is really about something deep inside you and once you understand how that operates, you can be a happier person.

    V.J. Smith, National MAD DADS President and Founder and President of Minneapolis MAD DADS

    “We want to be that conduit of men making a difference in the jails, in the schools, on the streets, in the churches and all around the community to help transform our families and our fathers,” he says. 

    He leads his volunteers out onto the streets at night to bring wise counsel and a listening ear to young men and women who have never experienced a relationship with a real caring adult. 

    And one of the tools he uses is The Way to Happiness, the common-sense moral code written by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. He was introduced to the booklet by members of the Church of Scientology of Twin Cities who work with him on his drug education and prevention activities.

    Smith had a custom edition of The Way to Happiness made with the MAD DADS logo on the cover. What he loves about handing the booklet to someone is the difference he knows it can make in their lives. “Just a little bit of information will take a person a long way and help them to have a better quality of life,” he says. “We hear people say, ‘You know I read that book and it changes the way I think about life. It changes how I feel about things.’”

    Smith talks about people who really don’t understand what happiness is. “Happiness is not about how much money you have,” he says. “It’s not about what kind of car you drive. Happiness is not about what kind of house you live in or any of that. Happiness is really about something deep inside you and once you understand how that operates, you can be a happier person.”

    He describes his purpose as reaching “the least, the last and the lost” — people who are overlooked and often taken advantage of. “Our goal is to help those individuals to be better, to understand what it is like to have a fulfilled life. Understand that, yes, there are challenges but you have the power, you have the power within you to conquer those challenges and come out a winner. We just have to show you how to do it — give you the tools to do it, give you the support to be strong.”

    The Way to Happiness was written in 1981. Immensely popular since its first publication, it has been embraced by more than 250,000 groups and individuals, with some 115 million copies distributed in 115 languages in 186 nations. It holds the Guinness World Record as the single most-translated nonreligious book and fills the moral vacuum in an increasingly materialistic society.

    The Church of Scientology and its members are proud to share the tools for happier living contained in The Way to Happiness.

    Source: ScientologyNews.org

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