Passionate, potent and powerful are three adjectives to describe the message that motivational speaker and life coach Rose “Cat Island Rose” Newbold shared with a group of young ladies from The Unspoken Belle Foundation, Inc., a local mentoring program that has been the voice of the unspoken, this past Sunday.

The 15 high school young ladies and a young man, who attended the Girl Talk, Fashion & Beauty Workshop at the Wow Health Group, 5821 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, had an awesome evening, according to their parents and organizers.

“I’m glad you and your team are out there doing what you can for these girls because growing up we felt like we had no one to confide in or had no one to speak up for us,” parent Nikki Goldman wrote to the organization’s founder and president Sabrina Guilouse Valbrun.

Goldman said the organization, which empowers and educates young women who lost themselves in a world that stripped them of their innocence through inappropriate touching, rape and molestation, particularly in the Haitian culture, “actually struck close to my heart.”

“Yesterday I saw these young girls, including my own, walk in very shy, timid and with some, no confidence,” she said. “At the end of the evening/night, they all walked out with the heads held high and were confident young beautiful girls that we knew they were. For that, I thank you and your team from the bottom of my heart.”

Newbold moved around the audience with ease, engaging the students in fun activities while highlighting principles for success. The former Delray Beach police officer used her knowledge, insight, creativity, humor and compassion to address pertinent topics related to women’s and adolescent health, youth development, leadership, academic success, popular culture and media, personal development, relationships and self-empowerment.

“My mission was to build these young girls’ self-esteem and encourage them to believe that they could achieve their goals and dreams and that they could go beyond what they see in their world right now,” said Newbold, who held a leadership position in a child care program in Delray Beach for several years.

She taught the young ladies and one young man new ways of thinking about their lives and encouraged them to push through limiting beliefs and pressures that hold them back from achieving their goals and dreams.

“I had to encourage them to love God, themselves and have a standard for their lives,” she said. “It is my duty to teach them how to have a relationship with God and build that relationship to a place where they can rely on God to lead them in every step that they take.”

I would be remiss if I did now say happy birthday to my mother, who celebrates another year today. I am blessed and thankful to have her with me one more year after a near departure two years ago.

Until next week, reach out and help someone make this city a better place because you can.