User:Sir. Somerset/draftingtable/Tyra Banks

Philanthropy
In 1999, Tyra Banks established the TZONE program, which aimed at leadership and life skills development. The program was created for the primarily disadvantaged teen girls in the greater Los Angeles area, and involves sending teens to a week-long overnight camp outside of LA, where Tyra personally lived among and bonded with the campers.

In 2005, TZONE transformed from a camp into a public charity, the Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation, with a mission which honors TZONE's camp origins, and seeks to create a larger “sisterhood” among girls and young women. It makes grants to grassroot organizations, and supports organizations that serve women and girls ages 13-35.

The Tyra Banks TZONE Foundation has offered several useful resources to a number of community nonprofits. The members of the foundation are empowered to take control of their lives by engaging in several productive activities such as filmmaking, community activism, dance, sports, leadership, writing, and even entrepreneurship at an early age. It encouraged girls to resist social pressures through a self-esteem building adventure.

In November of 2006, The TZONE foundation announced that it would award $10,000 each to both the Young Chicago Authors and also Women and Youth Supporting Each Other(WYSE).Young Chicago Authors provides creative writing workshops and public performance and publication opportunities for youth from a wide range of Chicago neighbourhoods. The grant will support the GirlSpeak program, which builds the communication skills, leadership abilities and confidence of girls ages 13-19. WYSE is a national mentoring program that pairs female college students at 13 universities with at-risk middle school girls from under-served communities. The program helps girls make wise decisions about relationships, sexuality, health and their futures, and encourages the girls to apply this experience to effect change in their neighbourhoods.