ISession
How to Be a Well-Respected Young Man or Woman
Carrying yourself in a way that earns respect before you ever ask for it.
Jason McKracken
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit · Est. 2003
Education is
the only true
empowerment.
The Just Be Reel Foundation teaches, motivates, and guides youth and young adults through the pitfalls and entrapments the world has to offer — reaching them first through film, music, dance, and the stage.
- 2003
- Founded
- 20+
- Years of guidance
- 4
- Art forms we teach
In the room with young people since 2003
FilmMusicDanceActingMentorshipRespectCommunityYouth VoicesFilmMusicDanceActingMentorshipRespectCommunityYouth VoicesFilmMusicDanceActingMentorshipRespectCommunityYouth VoicesFilmMusicDanceActingMentorshipRespectCommunityYouth Voices
Our mission
Honor yourself.
Respect others.
Live empowered.
Our mission is to demonstrate how to honor and respect oneself, and to promote respecting the lives of others, the property of others, and the opinion of others. We believe the key to a successful life is showing respect — and being respectful.
Since 2003 the Just Be Reel Foundation has provided educational and empowering programs for youth and young adults. Through our programs, young people learn about the matters that plague their communities, and leave with practical ways to mitigate the behaviors that hold them back.
“If one is educated, then one can be empowered to succeed.”
- 01
Respect for self
We help young people honor who they are, set the standard for how they are treated, and build self-esteem through real, earned accomplishment.
- 02
Respect for others
We promote respecting the lives of others — teaching empathy, restraint, and the courage to stand up for someone who cannot stand up for themselves.
- 03
Respect for property
We teach the value of what other people have built, and why caring for a shared space is part of caring for a shared community.
- 04
Respect for opinion
We show youth how to disagree without demeaning, to listen before answering, and to hold conviction without losing their character.
How we reach children
Some kids don't come for the lecture.They come for the mic.
Two decades in front of young people taught us something a classroom never could: the ones who need us most are often the last to walk through the door. So we stopped waiting for them to. We hand over a camera, a microphone, a stage — and they show up.
Once they are in the room, the real work starts. Respect for yourself. Respect for others. The decisions that shape the rest of a life. The art is not the reward at the end of the program — it is the way in.
Film
A camera gives a quiet kid a reason to speak
Young people write, shoot, and cut their own short films — then watch them premiere in front of the community that raised them.
Music & sound
A beat holds what they can't say out loud
Songwriting and production sessions turn what a young person is carrying into something they can hear, share, and be proud of.
Dance
Movement reaches the ones who won't sit still
Choreography and performance build discipline and confidence in a room where every body is welcome and every effort is seen.
Acting
Standing in another's story teaches empathy
Scene work and improvisation let young people try on courage, grief, and leadership before they have to use them in real life.
The arts are how we get them in the door.
What we teach them once they're inside is why we exist.
Our arts work runs through the Beat & Frame Arts Initiative — film, music, dance, and acting, made with and for young people.
The program vault
Subject matter experts who have lived what they teach.
For over two decades, JBRF conferences and events have brought judges, athletes, and counselors in front of young people — not to lecture, but to tell the truth.
IISession
How to Stand Up to Adversity: Making Lemonade Out of Lemons
Turning the hardest circumstances a young person faces into forward motion.
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James Graves
IIISession
How to Deal With Tragedy
Grief, loss, and the language a young person needs to keep going.
Deborah Yancer
IVSession
How to Score in Life and Not Lose Your Head
Success, pressure, and staying grounded once the wins start arriving.
Bobby Humphrey
Want a JBRF program at your school, church, or community center? Start the conversation.
Since 2003Building young people who respect themselves and others.
Who we are
Bessie
Bell
Bessie Bell founded the Just Be Reel Foundation in 2003, carrying more than 25 years of experience in administration and project management into a mission she has run ever since: teaching, motivating, and guiding youth and young adults through the pitfalls and entrapments that the world has to offer.
A veteran, Bessie holds an Associate's Degree in Business Administration and a Project Management Certification. Under her direction JBRF has convened subject matter experts — judges, athletes, counselors — for conferences, events, and programs that give young people the language and the tools to make better decisions.
She is married to Pastor Cedric Bell, and together they have two children and five grandchildren.
- 2003
- Founded the Just Be Reel Foundation
- Service
- United States military veteran
- 25+ yrs
- Administration & project management
- Education
- Associate's in Business Administration · Project Management Certification
- 2022
- The President's Lifetime Achievement Award
In the community
Education looks
like this.
Two decades of programs, service days, and community work — always in the room with the young people we serve.
Community learning days
Meals, supplies, and neighbors together at our learning center.
Delivering for families
Volunteers and youth leaders moving household goods to families who need them.
Programs built for the ages we serve
Workshops where young people practice, ask, and are heard.
Calendar of Domestic Violence Survivors
Our annual project honoring survivors and raising awareness in the community.
Other events
Beyond the
classroom.
Giveaways, camps, festivals, and rides to the polls — hosted with churches, businesses, and neighbors who want the same thing we do.
Strategic partnerships
Economic impact, brought home to Fairfield, Alabama.
In December 2020, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, alongside PGA TOUR Superstore, awarded the Foundation a $5,000 grant — dollars that went straight back into programs here at home.
We build with the city rather than around it: churches on 60th Street, Flintridge Shopping Center, food trucks, and neighborhood businesses like Magic City Grille II. Every event we co-host puts money, foot traffic, and attention back on Fairfield's own corridors.
Nov 3, 2026
Roll to the Polls
A community convoy to the polls. One convoy, one community, every voice counts — cars staged at 7:00 AM and rolling together.
Fairfield, AL
Oct 30, 2026
Community Love & Giveaway Day
Free food, designer-label clothing and purses, household items, and candy for the kids — everything given away in one afternoon.
Thompson Chapel AME Zion · 201 60th St
Oct 5, 2026
Food Giveaway
Meat, milk, vegetables, cheese, and canned goods — take all you can, and bring your neighbor's bag too.
Thompson Chapel AME Zion · 201 60th St
Jun 10 – Jul 15, 2026
Summer Arts Camp
Five weeks of acting, singing, playwriting, and set building. Free to attend, with lunch served every day.
Thompson Chapel Church · Fairfield, AL
Apr 18 – 25
Fairfield Festival
Carnival rides, carnival food, and local food trucks at Flintridge Shopping Center — a week that pulled families and their spending back into the city.
Flintridge Shopping Center
Community partner
UniverSoul Circus
Young people and their families met the performers up close when the circus came through — our youth invited in as guests of the show.
Fairfield youth & families
Community outreach
Magic City Grille II
Dinner on us. We sponsored a few families from the neighborhood to a meal at Magic City Grille II — an evening out for families who needed one, at a business we are glad to support.
Fairfield, AL
Get involved
Be part of the next young person's turning point.
JBRF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and every program we run starts with someone who decided to make room for it. Here is how you can help.
01
Bring JBRF to your school
Host a program for your students, congregation, or youth group. We bring the subject matter experts and the curriculum; you bring the room.
Request a program02Volunteer or mentor
Serve at community learning days, help run events, or mentor a young person through the decisions that shape the rest of their life.
Join the team03Sponsor a program
Underwrite a program, a service day, or our awareness projects so cost never stands between a young person and the room.
Talk about sponsorship“The key to a successful life is showing respect — and being respectful.”
Start the conversationContact
Let's put a program in front of your young people.
Tell us who you serve and what you're hoping for. Whether it's a program, a partnership, or a question about the foundation, this reaches Bessie and the JBRF team directly.
- Organization
- Just Be Reel Foundation · 501(c)(3)
- Serving
- Youth and young adults · North Alabama and beyond
- Response time
- Within a few business days