The Mission of Saving Our Daughters

Saving Our Daughters (SOD) eliminates social barriers that ultimately restrict students’ success in their daily lives as the organization utilizes influential celebrities to help mentor and educate girls beyond the borders of a traditional classroom. Utilizing celebrity mentors allows for girls of multicultural backgrounds to connect to programming in a unique way

Mission

Saving Our Daughters (SOD), a 501c-3 organization founded with the mission to support adolescent girls of color in overcoming social barriers such as bullying, mental health, and low self-esteem.

Saving Our Cinderellas, a special sector of programming within Saving Our Daughters co-founded by esteemed actress Keke Palmer, focuses on adolescent BIPOC to integrate values of confidence and leadership into their daily lives.

(SOD) Goals & History

(SOD) took on a deeper meaning in 2009, when the Founders Debbie and Curtis Benjamin’s youngest daughter, Iliss Marie, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. In 2011, she sadly lost her battle to cancer at 12 years old. Since 2014, the engine of Curtis and Debbie’s work is fueled by the devastating loss of their daughter.

Saving Our Cinderellas, a special sector of programming within Saving Our Daughters co-founded by esteemed actress Keke Palmer, focuses on adolescent BIPOC to integrate values of confidence and leadership into their daily lives.

In 2014, while on Broadway, acclaimed actress, singer, Keke, invited underprivileged girls, from the Bronx and Queens NY to the Broadway musical, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Palmer was the first African American actress to play Cinderella on Broadway.

This opportunity for the girls to watch their first Broadway musical with Keke in the leading role as the iconic Cinderella, was such an awesome experience that launched into an amazing program! Saving Our Cinderellas.

The main program under (SOD) reaches out to girls from multicultural backgrounds in an effort to encourage them within the arts to help deter negative effects of low-self-esteem and self-identity.