Daneea Badio is the Site Coordinator for the City of Marietta’s Franklin Road Weed and Seed Project. In this role, Daneea works with more than 12,000 area residents, local businesses, area schools, scores of community partners, multi-level government and law enforcement partners, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Weed and Seed is a community-based, multiagency approach to law enforcement and crime prevention sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 2006, Marietta’s implementation of this innovative, comprehensive strategy has resulted in Franklin Road’s crime being cut in half. Additionally, Daneea’s Weed and Seed efforts have resulted in $1.4 million dollars in direct funding, plus more than $10 million in leveraged funding obtained to support community revitalization efforts throughout the Franklin Road area. At the neighborhood level, Daneea works closely with the members of the Franklin Road Community Association, local apartment managers, residents, youth and others to assure the success several annual community events such as the Easter Egg Hunt, Teen Night, Movie Night – Screen on the Green, Back to School Bash, National Night Out, Youth and Law Enforcement Symposium and Holidays Around the World. These events provide entertainment, resources, school supplies, holiday gifts, awareness, education and opportunities for area residents to connect with one another.
Daneea also heads the Franklin Road Anti-gang Taskforce, where she has coordinated gang prevention programming for the past four years. This programming provides comprehensive support to area families through a family stability model which includes financial management training, parenting classes, resource referrals, educational and employment enrichment services. This initiative also made available a variety of new youth programs such as tutoring, life skills, mentoring, swimming lessons, dance classes, martial arts, golf lessons, football and basketball programs.
As supervisor of the Franklin Road Early Learning Initiative since 2008, Daneea oversees two Parent Educators who provide school readiness education for families with children ages 0-5 years old. This program includes home visiting using the Parents as Teachers curriculum, parent leadership training and school transition activities. The Early Learning Initiative has served as many as 400 area families.
Daneea also serves on several Boards including the Marietta Police Athletic League (PAL), YELLS (Youth Empowerment through Learning, Leading and Serving) and the Advisory Board for Sheltering Grace Ministries. Marietta PAL provides educational and recreational programs which give young people the opportunity to know police officers as friends, mentors and role models. YELLS is an afterschool and mentoring program which pairs high school students with elementary and middle schools students. YELLS youth meet weekly to bond, grow academically, build leadership skills and work together to design and implement community service projects. As an advisor to Sheltering Grace Ministries, which provides housing and life skills training for homeless pregnant women, Daneea has also facilitated their orientation classes for program participants for more than six years.
Marquerite King, Daneea’s mother, is the founder of Single Parent Connection, Inc. (SPC), a non-profit organization which empowers single parents to elevate their lives. As Program Director, Daneea has worked with her mother to design and implement educational programs which teach parents strategies for personal development, positive parenting, financial literacy and enhanced life skills.
Previously, Daneea has served as the Director of the Cobb County office of Travelers Aid, where she worked with as many as 1900 homeless families annually. As the Chair of the Cobb Community Collaborative, she helped grow the organization to more than 100 non-profit organizations, who seek opportunities to work together to better meet the needs of Cobb county residents. She has served on Cobb County’s Hospital Discharge Planning Committee, the Jails Discharge Planning and Re-entry Committee, and the Cobb Rent and Utility Taskforce.
In 2006, The Learning Channel’s reality TV series, THE MESSENGERS, crowned Daneea Badio, The Messenger and winner of the competition for America’s next great inspirational speaker! In her spare time, Daneea continues her inspirational speaking at conferences, corporations, colleges, schools, churches, organizations and community events.
Actress, playwright, and published author of “Dictations of Conversations,” an intriguing collection of her original poetry, Daneea is also a proud alumnus of Tuskegee University (BS Marketing) and Southern New Hampshire University (MS Community Economic Development), a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and serves as Co-President of the Drama Ministry of Turner Chapel AME Church, in Marietta, Georgia.
