Street Diamondz is a non-profit organisation that was founded by Dola Akinola to provide support to young people from inner city backgrounds. Dola is a New York attorney, a cosmetic formulator, a sports and exercise nutritional advisor, a business consultant, a poet and more. After graduating from law school in 2002, Dola created a non-profit organisation called Aspire High, which is dedicated to helping people achieve their full potential. She began to write and perform spoken word poetry, spreading a message of hope to people growing up in deprived parts of London. After passing the New York State bar in 2006, Dola began to volunteer at a youth club in North West London. She helped to organise talent shows, and she performed her raps and spoken word poetry at some of the events.
Dola observed that people from deprived areas tended to idolise people who had spent time in jail, so she was eager to help them follow a different path. In 2009, Dola interviewed a reformed ex-convict named Jay, who had transformed his life after spending time in prison. She promoted the interview on MySpace and other social media platforms. The interview with Jay can be read here.
In February 2017, Dola gave birth to an energetic Autistic boy named Isaac. She began to study Autism in 2019, when she was looking for ways to help her son to talk. After successfully helping Isaac to speak, Dola created a non-profit organisation called Autism Parenting Club to share her knowledge with other parents. Dola learned how to read at an early age, so she began to teach her son to read when he was 4 years old. He initially struggled with his reading, so Dola suspected that he was showing signs of dyslexia. She researched ways to help dyslexic children to read, and she began to implement the strategies with her son. Helping her son to read was very challenging, but it brought her a lot of joy. Dola is currently training to become a primary school teacher, so she can use her knowledge and experience to help other children.
