Durham Reporter

Helping Each Adolescent Reach Their Spark (HEARTS) has won this year's North Carolina Peace Prize, an award that the nonprofit’s founder and executive director Tameka Brown said has left her at a loss for words. The award was presented Sunday.

HEARTS focuses on helping young parents, ages 13-22, by providing services, resources and education to them, while teaching them about the importance of self-sufficiency and independence. It has provided such services for about 10 years.

Brown came up with the idea for the group while she was a student at N.C. A&T University and had an assignment. 

“I saw how my best friend was affected by team mom circumstances,” she told WTVD, “and I just made every part of my being - every moment, every mission to help young moms in need.” 

The plans she devised as a student came to fruition not because they were perfect, but because Brown was the driving force behind them.

"I don't do this work because I'm going to get awarded for it or rewarded for it,” she explained on the newscast. “I do it because I absolutely love the work that I do. I love to give. I love to love.” 

Her end goal is to cut down the incidence of teen pregnancy because she said that’s responsible for a harmful cycle that so many young women get caught up in. The group wants to move such people out of poverty to a life where they can fend for themselves, the nonprofit’s website says.

In its 10 years of operation, HEARTS has helped more than 125 young mothers, the station reported.

"It's just my mission to make sure that they have what they need because they, too, want to be good moms,” Brown said. “Even though they are young, they chose to keep their children. And I love every last one of them and I want to see every last one of them succeed.”

The North Carolina Peace Corps gives its North Carolina Peace Prize to a small community-based nonprofit organization in the state each year. The recognition includes a $1,000 grant.

Although receiving such awards isn’t as important as the help her group provides, Brown said obtaining the North Carolina Peace Prize brings recognition to the work HEARTS does and awareness to the problem of teen pregnancy.

"It means that everyone in the community gets to witness the work and the dedication that HEARTS has been doing for 10 years without the financial stability that we needed in order to be sustained as an organization,” Brown said.