Philip A Matthews, Co-Founder
Philip Matthews was trained as a scientific computer programmer in aerospace but became an educator when his seven children needed a private school education. He and his wife, Segatha, started a school in their church in 1981, where he was the Administrator and she taught reading. Since that time, they have taught hundreds of students in almost every school format possible: public elementary, middle, and high schools, private schools, college, and home schools. In addition, their family has had over 40 kids living with them over the last 48 years, some being official foster children and others being boarders attending their private schools.
Working with many at-risk youth has given Philip a keen desire to see them succeed and become leaders in every area of life—academically, physically, socially, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. In 2011, he and others formed Transformations Institute for Leadership Training (TILT) as the vehicle to bring about this success.
Ptolemy J Matthews, Co-Founder
As a 16-year middle school and high school Math teacher and Dean, Ptolemy Matthews has worked with scores of young, minority males, neglected by society, falling through the cracks, casualties of a broken system. Working in the inner city of Los Angeles, it was not long before he began to see the overwhelming needs of some of his students. Many were highly at risk and had little or no parental involvement in their lives.
In the summer of 2016, he moved to Lancaster, California, in the northeast corner of Los Angeles County. Little did he know that he had been positioned in the foster care capital of the country! The Antelope Valley (Lancaster, Palmdale, and the surrounding cities) has more children in foster care than anywhere else in the nation.1 It is estimated that up to 70% of the foster youth in Los Angeles County reside in this valley. He also learned that the high school he works at has the highest population of foster youth in the United States! He has worked directly with these youth in special programs at his school.
Eventually, a vision of a transformative youth ranch coalesced in his mind, and he and others began working on that dream—Transformations Institute for Leadership Training. The goal is to develop well-rounded and prepared young people who will exit the program ready to lead and make a tremendous impact on their world. With your help, we believe we can make a difference!
Ptolemy is joined with his wife, Neysa, who has a Masters in Psychology and a School Counseling Credential, and their four young children.
1.( https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/news-2/foster-parent-recruitment-crisis-l-county-zip-code/23551 ).