• In late fall of 2006, the Crown Jewels Chapter of the Links received a grant from the Foundation of the Carolinas to implement a Career Coaching Program at the Performance Learning Center (PLC) - a school of second chances.
• Our program year began in January 2007 with a cadre of 14 girls who had been selected by the Community-in-Schools coordinator, as students who were at risk of not completing high school.
• The intent of the five month program curriculum is to teach life skills to students with challenges that result from low self esteem, poverty, lack of self-awareness and unhealthy decision-making.
• The objective of the curriculum is to (1) expose the students to accurate knowledge and (2) exercise higher level thinking to encourage healthy decision-makers.
• Topics covered included: (1) self awareness, conducting the Myers Briggs Personality Profile Test (2) the process for decision making (3) focus on self respect (4) communication skills (5) respecting authority (6) breaking the cycle of poverty and (7) career choices, through exposure.
• The student population for the 2007/2008 school year is just over 100. At the request of the high school's principal the Chapter agreed to increase the enrollment of participants to 25 and include male students.
• The program year will begin in October with a similar curriculum but with a focus more slanted on the Links, Inc. national service facets: international trends and services, the arts, services to youth and national trends and services.
• We are pleased to share that our Connecting Links and male friends of the Links have agreed to volunteer to assist with the male students who have joined the program.

The Arts
In the arts, The Links have a strong record of supporting and providing scholarships for talented individuals, sponsoring quality programs for display of talent by budding as well as established artists, and sponsoring countless programs and projects for young people.

Working with Afro American Culture Center the Crown Jewels Arts Facet took the lead in refurbishing and decorating a circa 1940's "Shotgun" house. The house is now a living historical museum in which visitors enjoy with a guided tour. Chapter members donated and loaned many of the antique furnishings now in the house.

Making it more personal in our local community, facet members provided clothing for female refugees from Somalia who had moved to the Charlotte.

Chapter members actively support the work of the international trends and services fact rallying together around the people in Dafur chapter members made phone calls to politicians in support of the NC Legislature divesting itself of funds that were associated with the regime that was assassinating people in the country. Annually, chapter members work together assembling more than 300 toiletry bags that are later distributed to persons who live in developing countries.

The Crown Jewels Chapter is committed to providing services for the total good of our community. The goals of the National Trends and Services Facet are to embrace the social, economic and political betterment of the African-American community through resolution of national issues on the local level.

Services to Youth
The main objective of this program facet is to keep youths of African ancestry find and fulfill their intellectual potential. It focuses on the needs, problems and concerns of our youth, both locally and globally.

Services to Youth and National Trends and Services Facets have partnered to implement a mentoring program at a local alternative high school. Crown Jewels meet bi-monthly at lunch with 12 young ladies and implement a self esteem curriculum "Imagine Me".