THE INSPIRATION
OUR STORY:
Relate Marketing Founder, Toyia Montgomery, started her career as the Technology and Resource Coordinator at Lafayette Bloom Back on Track School in the West End of Cincinnati. While in that role, she was responsible for taking the students on college tours and helping to expose them to various technologies and life experiences. On one occasion, she was taking the students to a college a few hours south of Cincinnati when she discovered several of her students had never been outside the West End.
While driving down the highway one of the students looked at Toyia and pointed out the window, "What are those?" Confused, Toyia looked at the student and asked what he was referring to. He responded by pointing to the cows and the horses grazing along the side of the road. It was in that moment Toyia began to recognize the need to do something to help provide a solution and thought, if not her, who? The solution would be called Relate Marketing. The organization was designed to help young people relate to the rest of the world and help the world relate to them.
THE EVOLUTION
Relate Marketing was established in 2008 as a 501c3 and Toyia continued to build the organization as a side project for several years. In 2014 Toyia enlisted the help of her two cousins, Tiffeny and Talia, to add a new program for girls ages 8-17 called Junior Charm School. Junior Charm School was developed to help young girls make better decisions and ultimately become productive members of society.
The Community Empowerment Center was established in 2022 as a result of the pandemic, to give more people hope for tomorrow as it relates to career and purpose.