​MISSION AND HISTORY
D.I.V.I.N.E. Institute initially emerged from a need to engage inner city youth in the summer by ameliorating their vocabulary and manners. In 1995, Aretta-Rie Johnson started teaching her children advanced vocabulary words and the rudiments of etiquette. Family members began to ask if their children could attend and each summer it grew to the extent of moving into the basement of a local church where the administrative office and summer program still reside.
The summer program participants would always ask to spend the night and parents began suggesting D.I.V.I.N.E. open a boarding school. After much contemplation and consulting, D.I.V.I.N.E. purchased a home in the Midway area of St. Paul and began the process of becoming a state-run emergency shelter and group home. In September 2017, D.I.V.I.NE. Intervention opened its doors to girls 12 - 17 years old.
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D.I.V.I.N.E. Institute continues to proliferate due to the demand for collegiate summer enrichment initiatives, emergency shelters, and group homes. Ultimately, D.I.V.I.N.E. is an organization which promotes fun, games, and prizes via learning. Learning is rewarded through ways scholars can relate. Our goal is to foster a high expectation in a learning environment.
Our D.I.V.I.N.E. Intervention program is a cultural enrichment program designed to highlight the strength and underscore the talent of girls with challenging behaviors and truancy issues. Our program aids girls with achieving the direction, identity, and critical consciousness which leads to positive self-esteem, relationships with others, greater ethnic pride, and higher expectations for future accomplishments.
ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION
To elevate the interpersonal development of youth through literacy and enrichment initiatives which foster life-long learning.
ORGANIZATIONAL VISION
A rigorous program that:
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empowers creativity
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accelerates learning and
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provides educational resources.
This is accomplished through high-expectations and positive reinforcement to promote tomorrow's leaders.
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INTERVENTION VISION
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Program graduates are bright, up and coming scholars, and increasingly called upon by leaders and peers; highly productive; with strong morals and ethics rooted in honesty; accepts constructive feedback, treats others with respect; paragon for behavior; are articulate about their area of interests; and are qualified to matriculate and graduate from post-secondary institutions.
INTERVENTION MISSION
We seek to foster a loving, playful, educational, and family-friendly, safe housing to girls experiencing various challenges through interactive forums which serve and inspire individual advancement.