“When we stop labeling young people by their challenges and communities, and start investing in their promise, we create graduates, leaders, stronger families, and generational change,” Fatmi-Hall told VoxPopuli in a recent interview. 

This has been her guiding philosophy for the past decade as founder and CEO of UFCF. Now, it’s the basis of her TEDx Talk, taking place Saturday at the Linda W. Chapin Theater in the Orange County Convention Center, where she’ll share her philosophy with an expected audience of  2,600 people for TEDxOrlando.

Fatmi-Hall, past president of the Pine Hills Community Council and a former candidate for Orange County Commission,  is one of 13 speakers at TEDxOrlando. The event  — the first since 2018 — was organized by a group of volunteers based in Horizon West and Orlando. 

The event’s theme is The Space Between and focuses on the gaps between people, identities and perspectives. TEDxOrlando organizers Liam and Nick Rogers told VoxPopuli the theme is intentionally broad to prompt a wide range of discussions. 

“Orlando is finding its identity,” Nick Rogers explained. “It’s maybe in a place between being known almost universally for tourism and where it’s going, which, you know, it may be known for other things in the future. We locate TEDxOrlando at the intersection of those two different points, and act as that catalyst for those discussions that think about the space between where we’ve come from and when and where we’re going.”

Speakers like Fatmi-Hall will help chart that course. But in order to step forward, Fatmi-Hall will make the case that we need to leave something behind. Namely, she wants to retire the identifier at risk for youth and communities. It’s a phrase she said that can cause hopelessness in places where potential needs to be cultivated. 

“When you hear at risk, most people already think of a problem, right?” Fatmi-Hall said. “It’s a community that’s underserved, one without resources that help to make a community whole. One where you think of trouble, one where your graduation rates are lower, and your crime rates are high.”

The term at-risk youth gained popularity beginning in the 1980s as a softer alternative to juvenile delinquent. It has been used to describe students in vulnerable situations who are less likely to finish high school as a result. 

Though it is still widely used today, educators and public health professionals have increasingly recommended phasing out the term. The term is disproportionately used to describe Black and Latino students and can have a stigmatizing effect because of its negative connotations. 

Experts have argued the term creates an expectation of failure that discourages students from pursuing education — the exact opposite of what educators seek to instill.

Fatmi-Hall wants to replace the words at risk with the phrase at-promise youth — an idea she will discuss at length during her TEDx Talk. A similar concept has already been implemented in California by Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

This new term allows educators to emphasize students’ potential, Fatmi-Hall said. But while changing language is essential, it’s not the full game. Educators, parents and institutions need to do more to cultivate their students’ talents, she said. 

Fatmi-Hall wants to see more community organizations, including nonprofits, businesses, and churches, get involved with their local schools in a manner similar to UFCF. Since 2014, UFCF has established food assistance and scholarship initiatives in addition to expanding its after-school programming into a local elementary school.

By creating similar initiatives at neighborhood schools, Fatmi-Hall believes community members can play a crucial role in empowering and educating students to be active, informed participants in their own communities. 

“At promise can’t be a label with the same lack of investment,” Fatmi-Hall said. “The words must change the work.” 

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AT A GLANCE

WHAT: TEDxOrlando

WHEN: Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

WHERE: Orange County Convention Center - Linda W. Chapin Theater (West Building)

TICKETS: Click here Use code HHM to receive 30 percent off tickets

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SIDEBAR: How a couple of Brits in Horizon West brought back TEDxOrlando

Londoners Liam Rogers and Nick Rogers have been hosting TEDx events in their corner of the world to promote “ideas worth spreading” since 2016. The couple was in the middle of putting together their 2026 Orlando event even as they packed up their flat and moved across the pond two months ago to new digs in Horizon West. 

They’ve been surprised and delighted by the early enthusiasm for reviving TEDxOrlando, something not seen in here since 2018. 

“One of the biggest challenges … was just the sheer volume of people who wanted to speak,” said Nick, TEDxOrlando’s host and director of curation. He and the TEDxOrlando team found themselves sifting through 635 speaker applications before choosing 13 headliners. 

The speakers are scholars, activists and company founders from across Florida. Nick said it’s one of the “strongest TEDx lineups I’ve ever seen.”

Short, typically 18-minute presentations, TED Talks date to 1984 when the first TED conference was held in Monterey, Calif. TED is an acronym for technology, entertainment and design, although presentations have since expanded to include science, arts, global affairs and business. Official TED Talks are run by TED.com while TEDx talks are local, licensed, independently organized events. 

TED and TEDx talks are meant to help people shift their perspective on a given topic. Nick said he hopes audiences will “feel that their assumptions have been challenged, that they will have gone into the event thinking about certain topics in one way… and then listening to our 13 speakers, come out of the event thinking about the world in a different way.” 

The duo have future salon events planned and will update the TEDxOrlando website with details.