Meet ABT's CEO/Founder

ABT’s founder, Frances Simmons-Ellis, started her mission in 1999 by introducing her self-Awareness “Braid etiquette“ curriculum to many Chicago Public Schools Students. Her method of delivery sets the tone to condition the youth to accept who they are and to focus on their beauty, inside and out.

Through her concept and research she has developed over 11 programs and projects to help at-risk inner-city youth understand individual brain power. Her motto, some will say with tenacity, she states “I can’t sit and watch young people struggle to find their self-worth.” Her strategy helps the youth to understand the importance of critical thinking for best practice in their daily living.

She has designed ABT programs/projects to empower individuals to embrace their true purpose in life and how to think when faced with a negative situation. The concept is to focus on student development and an individual’s social and emotional learning ability. Frances knows what a look (appearance), feeling (reaction), and lack of resources (finances) can do to an individual’s self-esteem and confidence. Her presentation workshops are created from her real-life experiences and others experiences who have participated in her session and shared their incidents. She knows the moment of truth is the beginning of the healing process.

Why are we here?

The Vision of A Better Tomorrow for Today’s Teens (ABT) is expressed through our mission to foster a high level of cooperation between a variety of community stakeholders, i.e., clergy, small business owners and community residents to work collaboratively to redevelop housing, build new construction, purchase and sell new construction and to rehabilitate existing properties, whether vacant lot, vacant buildings and/or properties in need of repair for aesthetic purposes, to bring violations to code for the sole purpose of maintaining the original community stakeholders. Small business owners would be part of the growth and development of the community, rather than slowly eliminated – a common routine with gentrification.

Culture · Education · Economics

Creating A New Way of Life In Today's Youth

ABT’s mission is to spark, increase and cultivate entrepreneurship amongst all stakeholders and to provide the leadership necessary to move participants through conflict resolution, political educates, state and how to maneuver within local government entities, public and private agencies and corporate venues to secure properly executed contracts, training to disseminate contract rhetoric/lingo, to adhere to city building and code requirements as well as blueprint specification for architectural and engineering plans.