About Us

An Array of Charm, "AAOC", was founded in January of 2004. The AAOC program was designed to teach today’s “little girls”, through classes in etiquette, manners, and character, to become tomorrow’s “young ladies”. Since that time, our mission and programs have grown both in depth and in scope. Our desire to dig deeper is grounded in our belief that every child can achieve his or her goals, despite his or her circumstance. Our unique approach involves “healing” the ills of cultural, economic, and educational poverty through gender-specific foundations training in etiquette, civility, and protocol. We understand that these are three universal languages that, once learned, empower our youth to transcend the social barriers they encounter because of their socioeconomic status. These languages simultaneously broaden the world they live in and narrow it, so that their life goals are no longer out of reach. These are languages that have been lost to many living in the inner-city. Because of the legacy of drugs, poverty, and single parent homes, they have not been passed down by tradition. This serves as the foundation for all of our programming, which also includes academic support, character education, and leadership training. AAOC is poised to play our part in reversing the trend of inner-city youth who reach adulthood and are not equipped with the skills required to be successful in life.

                                                    Mission Statement

 An Array of Charm’s mission is to empower disadvantaged youth by equipping them with the academic competencies, social skills, and leadership training required to create permanent, positive change in their lives. We accomplish this through a foundation of training in etiquette, civility, and protocol- the three core assets that transform societal and socioeconomic differences into the common language of success. Each summer, AAOC provides affordable, accessible day camps for families of youth, ages 4-15. AAOC camps are gender-specific, culturally relevant and provide training centered on the themes of social and business etiquette, civility, and protocol. Youth also receive academic enrichment, character education, and participate in community services activities.

                                                            History

This will be our eighth (8) year providing day camp services to youths in the Nashville, Davidson County community. For those of you that have been with us throughout AAOC’s inception, you may recall that in the year 2005 to present we have been featured in the local media, both printed and televised where in we have continued to introduce our unique teaching concept that involves etiquette and education. Our programs have been successful through the years because of our uniqueness and strong emphasis on social, life and academic skills for the youths in the community we serve. AAOC is aware that a large portion of the community we serve have been affected by the state of the economy and as such in order to better serve our families, we have implemented, (CACFP) financial programs geared towards providing assistance to those families in need of our services.  With this in mind, please note we have been able to provide services to over one hundred youths annually that participate in our summer camps and aftercare program.   

 

Recreation

(Field trips) - Purity Dairy, Nashville Zoo, College visit at TSU, Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Holiday World, Vanderbilt BCC Center, Space Center-Huntsville, AL , Field day– Nashville Shores,  Looby Center-Reading time/computer time, Adventure Science Museum, Weekly visits to Looby Center for Swimming.

 

Volunteers/Guest Speakers

Tooth Fairy - Lentz Health Ctr., Workshop on STD's, Teen Pregnancy-Planned Parenthood, Making the Correct Decisions, Brenda Gilmore - Lecture on The Power of Voting, Scrapbook Workshop, Radio Personality, Safety & Gang Violence, Dress for Success, Modeling, Mary Kay - Skin care/Makeup, Animal Control and other surprise visits.