YELLS is excited to be offering virtual programming for Afterschool Program (K-5th) and Community Action Cafe (9-12th) students through a series of online sessions. Sessions will take place Mon. -Thurs. from Monday, April 20th – May 22nd.
YELLS-Virtual-Programming-Schedule-for-Website-Latest-Heidi Dasinger from Marietta Power & Water has been a long time supporter of YELLS. We want to give her a big shoutout for volunteering to bring a truly unique and valuable experience to our YELLS teens. Heidi knew that our YELLS Community Action Cafe teens work hard to develop their professional and leadership skills through the operation of their Community Action Cafe, and she thought of a way to help them develop these skills even further.
Heidi invited the Leadership Cobb Class of 2019 to join our YELLS students for a Professionalism Panel. During the panel, each Leadership Cobb Professional shared valuable insight and experience about their professional lives. They kept the atmosphere light-hearted and engaging for our high-school students, sharing their most embarrassing professional moments, and then giving crucial advice for our students about how to deal with professional faux-pas.
They also shared messages about the importance of displaying a professional image and the key to developing and maintaining professional relationships, before opening up the discussion to our teens for questions. By the end of the event, our teens were eager to continue networking with our guests. It is evident that our teens learned a lot during this experience and frequently ask when Heidi and her group can come back for a visit! Thank you, Heidi, for always thinking of us, and being dedicated to providing such valuable experiences for our youth!
YELLS wants to give a big shout out to Kim Gresh and S.A. White Oil Company for being such a generous supporter. Kim kicked off our “Be a Voice for Marietta Youth” fundraising campaign as our first Community Champion level sponsor.
She had another surprise in store for us during the Gateway Marietta CID Meeting that was held at YELLS in January. YELLS Executive Director, Laura Keefe, provided a presentation about the impact of our work at YELLS and the funding gap we’ve experienced after the elimination of the Cobb County Non-Profit grant. Youth and parents also had the opportunity to share what YELLS means to them. When Laura shared that we were just $3,654 from meeting our $30,000 fundraising goal, this sparked Kim into action… She offered ANOTHER generous donation to close out our campaign and surpass our campaign goal! Our students and staff were blown away, and we can’t thank her enough for her generosity and support in helping to ensure that YELLS will be able to continue pouring into the youth and community of Franklin Gateway!
You can read more about the Gateway Marietta CID meeting and Kim Gresh’s generous gift in this Marietta Daily Journal article.
Kim Gresh and S.A. White Oil Company aren’t only champions of YELLS, but of our whole Cobb community. They make it a priority to invest in local non-profits and the work that helps our community thrive. Kim is active on the Cobb Community Foundation board, and many other charitable causes as well. She’s also committed specifically to our Franklin Gateway community as a member of the Gateway Marietta CID board.
Thank you, Kim and S.A. White Oil Company, for being a Community Champion for YELLS and believing in our youth and the power of servant-leadership.
Suntrust, now Truist, team members have become regulars at YELLS this year! They’ve proven how valuable community is to their team, making corporate engagement a priority. We’ve already welcomed three groups in 2020 alone! Each time they visit, they bring a large group of eager volunteers, and they have developed into such an incredible partner. It’s been a win-win as their engagement provides an opportunity for BB&T and Suntrust employees to come together as a new Truist team while making a meaningful difference for our youth.
Networking can be scary for anyone, but the volunteers from Truist have provided authentic opportunities for our teens to overcome the butterflies and experience the power of relationship-building. During each round of our “Speed Networking” session, students grew more comfortable, and by the end, it was hard to stop the conversations from flowing! Each time that Truist has come to visit, our students get more comfortable, are excited about making new connections, and grow in their leadership and professional skills.
While our youth developed their professionalism and networking skills, the experience was just as meaningful for our guests from Truist. Volunteers shared how much the experience moved them:
Thank you for all that you, your team, and your organization do for the youth who enter the doors of YELLS. I was truly blown away by one of your students who stated the most important life skill YELLS has taught him was the ability to forgive. I was not expecting such an answer but you and your teammates have unquestionably made a difference in this young scholar’s life.
It was such a great day for us. All day today I got feedback from my team on how full their hearts were with that experience, and how motivated my teammates are by the students. For me personally, it was a moving experience to see the students with their ambition and their dreams. I’ve told so many people about it!
I was truly moved by the young men that I personally spoke with and honestly overwhelmed by emotion I wasn’t expecting.
That was such an amazing experience and I walked away just in awe of the students that I was able to speak with.
As if the impact they had on our teens wasn’t enough, volunteers also transformed our space! They rolled up their sleeves and got to work building tables for our homework room, cleaning our kitchen, and writing inspirational messages for our elementary students. We’re so enriched by the mark Truist has left with us at YELLS!
Thank you, Truist, for helping our students learn and grow!
We are always looking for groups that are interested in Speed Networking with our teens – Please contact Laura@YELLSinc.org for more info on how to get involved!
YELLS invites our supporters to invest in the youth and families who are investing in our shared community.
YELLS relies on the generosity of individuals and partners like you. This year, Cobb County Commissioners made a recommendation that nonprofits no longer be supported by the County and eliminated a key source of revenue for YELLS, the Cobb County Nonprofit Grant. This will have a major impact on YELLS, as the County has historically provided up to $65,000 of funding annually to support our operations.
While this presents an urgent need, it also offers an opportunity for our supporters to rally together to uplift our work and invest in the youth and families who are leading as change-makers in our shared community.
It takes us all working together to make a true difference! We invite you to be a part of this difference and raise your voice for Marietta youth through an individual contribution or a family or corporate sponsorship.
YELLS staff and youth rung in 2020 with New Year’s Eve-themed activities that challenged us to think about how we can grow our skills and spread our impact in 2020.
While our students were still enjoying their holiday break, our staff met to get a head start in putting the YELLS model into practice. The morning started out with exciting and fun choice activities. Our staff like to play, too! Our staff had the opportunity to experience first hand how we want to welcome our youth when they return. New Year choice activities included: human ring toss, beach towel volleyball, Blink! Card game, four square, firework painting, and flour face challenge (a messy favorite). As the team wound down from all of the fun, they had a chance to reflect on which activities were their favorites and then create a database of new activities for our students’ first day back!
The staff continued learning about ways to engage our youth, and started creating a vision for our youth for the new year. Broken into teams, the staff navigated through a series of challenges designed to model what a fun, engaging, and meaningful lesson could look like. Instead of sitting and discussing or writing out ideas, the staff experienced what it feels like as a student to learn in this environment, and how hands-on activities, in line with the Kolb Experiential Learning Model, inspire creative thinking and meaningful discussion.
The first challenge they faced was a colorfully lit “balloon drop” in which staff had to pop balloons suspended from the ceiling in search of instructions. At this challenge staff reflected on ideas about ways to empower youth to go above and beyond and fulfill their greatness.
Next it was time to “’Toast’ to the YELLS Family” where team members had to throw pieces of toasted bread at a stack of champagne glasses in order to proceed to the next step. Staff discussed ways we can ensure that everyone feels welcomed at YELLS as a part of the YELLS family.
Then it was time to “Spark Youth-Led Community Building” which involved using a lit candle to burn through fishing line, releasing their instructions from the ceiling. Staff reflected on their vision for youth-led community building and community engagement.
Finally, our team had the chance to “Cook up a Third Place” in which they got to create their own croissant with fillings of their choice while discussing their ideas and vision for the Community Action Cafe and how it can truly be a space that welcome community.
All of these activities came together to help staff remember our values and inspire them to empower our youth to live these in their lives and in our community. Our staff then had the chance to meet with their programs as a team to put this into action and plan an exciting New Year’s Eve themed welcome back for our students!
Before the team knew it, it was time to welcome our students back for their first day of the semester! As our students entered on their first day back, they were welcomed with music, games, and lots of new choice activities to choose from! Some of our teens were even brave enough to try the flour face game!
Next our high school students had the opportunity to “knock out” what they wanted to leave behind in 2019, as they stepped into the boxing ring. They also celebrated their accomplishments of the past year.
Then it was time for our high school students to put a lot of trust in their friends (and us!) as they were broken into groups and blindfolded, preparing to go on a journey of teamwork challenges, without their sense of sight. Each team navigated the Cafe by following a string that was strung from room to room. They cautiously relied on each other with only the string to guide them.
First up, they had to find 6 cups before building a cup tower. This was challenging, but it got more difficult from there. They followed the guiding string to the back room. Once there, they were given five spoonfuls to blindly taste. As a team they had to identify something spicy (jalapeno), sweet (chocolate pudding), salty (pretzel), sour (warhead candy), and bitter (grapefruit juice) using their senses of smell and taste. At the next destination they had to use their sense of touch and dig through a bowl of dry rice and find 5 small safety pins. It’s harder than it looks! After they completed this challenge they navigated to their final challenge using the string. Once they were in the conference room, one team member was secretly given a word. The group had to line up, one behind the other, as they drew the word on each other’s backs. Once the word got to the front of the line, that student drew what they thought the word was on the wall, all while blindfolded! This was by far the hardest challenge for the students, but they had successfully completed their journey!
Once they made it back to the front of the Cafe and their eyes had a chance to adjust, the students had time to debrief and learned that when you don’t have a vision(or are blindfolded) it makes it much harder to accomplish your goals. They were then able to started writing out their vision for 2020, and broke that vision down into manageable goals.
Our K-5th students stayed just as busy downstairs as they began to explore their emotions and learn about different feelings. Youth identified different emotions by placing raindrops under each “feeling” category. Next, they’ll learn skills for how to regulate their emotions effectively. This is just the start of our students understanding the theme for the month, “We Create Peace,” and the importance of connecting with their emotions so that they can “create peace” in the year ahead.
It was time to celebrate! Keeping with tradition, both age groups had a blast counting down to the new year! The students toasted to the new year with sparkling grape juice, music, and a New Year’s count down. Both students and staff are looking forward to a wonderful 2020 full of vision and purpose!
Happy New Year!
In case you missed it, our teens hosted a tremendously successful Community Dinner to help us close out the year. This was a huge service learning opportunity for our Community Action Cafe Scholars and Mentoring Bigs, as they learned first hand what it takes to hold a successful event of this magnitude. We are super proud of their efforts and the resulting event. We are also very thankful to our community for showing up for this event and our kids!
Our students created flyers and canvassed the community, being sure to invite community members, apartment managers, and local businesses on Franklin Gateway. They also practiced drafting professional emails in order to invite other Marietta business leaders, local political figures, and school representatives. They were so excited to see what a huge turn out they had. As you can see from the pictures, the building was packed! 120+ community members and guests joined us, and space quickly became limited, but this was a good problem to have, and the community had no problem squeezing in together with their neighbors to accommodate all of our guests.
The students also solicited donations from neighboring restaurants, receiving delicious contributions from Franklin Gateway restaurants: La Iguala Meat Market, Soul Food Train, and Golden Tropics Jamaican Restaurant. Our parents and community members also contributed dishes for this potluck style event, and everyone left very satisfied after sampling all of the yummy offerings.
This dinner was about more than just good food. The YELLS teens thought about every detail, including discussion questions that they developed and placed in the center of each table inspiring meaningful connections and partnerships between Franklin Gateway neighbors and businesses. The students strategically dispersed themselves at separate tables so that they could guide conversations between people. Each student had a role, whether is was to serve, welcome guests, capture memories in the photo booth, spark conversations or share testimonials of their achievements at YELLS on the mic. Thank you to Theron Furr, our teen Co-CEO for doing a great job as Master of Ceremonies at the event. It was not an easy task with it being such a packed house, but he kept the energy high the entire night!
Many of our K-5th ASP youth were also in attendance, and they enjoyed the event so much that they decided to model their own service project after this one, in which they created flyers to secure food donations that they would then serve to their younger peers during their holiday celebration. Our high school students did a great job of inspiring our younger students and showing them first hand how to be servant-leaders!
Our students from the K-5 scholars up through our graduating seniors are busy planning many more community events for the Spring. Be sure to keep in the loop for our Community Action Cafe Thursday night community events, and our Mentoring Program community service projects. You will not want to miss what they have in store!
Each December the Franklin Road Community Association hosts Holidays Around the World. This huge community event led by Franklin Gateway residents provides holiday entertainment, crafts and activities, Christmas gifts, and a resource fair. Our Mentoring Bigs took advantage of this opportunity host “pitch tables” for their upcoming community service projects. Each service project group shared their project visions and received feedback from the hundreds of community members in attendance. This spring, the Bigs are hosting a Community Voter Registration drive, a “Franklin Fair” neighborhood block party, and a Community Business Outreach Event for small businesses on Franklin Gateway. Holidays Around the World served as a great platform for the Bigs to network with the community, receive feedback on their projects, and practice their pitches.
During the event, community members were given secret ballots. As they listened to each Mentoring group’s pitch for their service projects they recorded their favorite presentation and had the opportunity to leave feedback for our students to read and improve on the delivery of their projects. The team with the most votes at the end of the night received $100 towards their project!
The Mentoring program Bigs meet on the first Saturday of each month to work on developing their service projects. These projects are entirely teen-led. They put a lot of time, energy, and heart into making these events a success and something that truly benefits the community. We are always searching for dedicated volunteers who are interested in being Service Project Coaches that help guide our teens as they learn what it takes to plan these large scale service projects. Service Coaches meet with Bigs in their service projects groups one Saturday a month from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.
These hardworking Bigs also meet every Tuesday to help instill servant-leadership values to their elementary school aged Littles. We are also always in need of volunteers that are interested in working with our high school students as adult Mentors on Tuesdays from 3:00 – 6:00 PM.
We hope you will plan to join us at our Bigs’ Community Service Projects this spring!
Interested in learning more about becoming a Mentor or Service Project Coach? Email mentoring@yellsinc.org for more information.
This past holiday season was filled with many generous donations and gifts. We want to give special recognition to our neighboring businesses at Parkway One and Two for the huge outpouring of love they decided to give our students this year. Parkway One and Two reached out to us to let us know that the tenants and their employees were interested in hosting an Angel Tree that would benefit our YELLS families. This was a first for them and YELLS, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect.
Parkway One and Two went above and beyond in helping to coordinate this undertaking and make sure that each of our students was matched with a generous donor who purchased an item from our students’ wish lists. Employees from AmerisBank, The University Financing Foundation, Waste Management, and WellStar all participated in making the holidays extra bright for our families.
At the end of the collection period, we went to pick up the gifts. As we turned the corner, we were in awe of the mountain of gifts in front of us, all carefully wrapped in festive red bows. It was amazing to see how strangers who have never met our families were willing to be so selfless and generous in their gifts to our students. As we started looking through the gifts to figure out how to transport all of the goodies back to YELLS, we realized that most of these donors had purchased not one, but multiple items for each of our students. One of our students even received a bike! What a tremendous blessing this was!
Unfortunately, our staff have come accustomed to many of our families expressing just how tough times have been lately, and the holidays make that financial strain even more apparent. But the generosity of Parkway One and Two tenants and its employees made it a very merry Christmas for our families. Thank you to the tenants of Parkway One and Two and their employees for your big hearts and for choosing to support of our Franklin Gateway families!
– YELLS Afterschool Program Parent
“It takes a village to raise a child, and YELLS is like an extended family.”
We’re so blessed to have a community that uplifts our work at YELLS and wraps their arms around our Franklin Gateway neighborhood. The YELLS Family is truly powerful: 33+ partners and 154 volunteers invested over 6,970 hours empowering 102+ youth and hundreds more parents and community members last year.
We’re proud to share the amazing achievements from the 2018-2019 school year, made possible by the hard work and dedication of our youth, parents, staff, volunteers, partners, funders, and an entire community rallying around Franklin Gateway. Here are just a few highlights to celebrate from the 2018-2019 school year:
The true impact of YELLS is best expressed in the words of the families we have the privilege to work with each day. YELLS champion and mother of both an elementary youth in our YELLS Afterschool Program and a teen in our YELLS Community Action Cafe, Ms. Patrice Rogers, shares the following:
Where can I begin? My family was blessed the day YELLS came into our lives. I said this because being a single parent is one of the most hardest things a person can face. But this load becomes lighter when you have a program like YELLS in your corner. I have watched my 9-year-old son come out of his shell. He is no longer that shy little boy. He is confident and quite funny if I do say so myself and I know YELLS played a great big role in that development. I work long and early hours so it’s good to know my son is in good hands getting help with his homework and reading.
I also have a seventeen-year-old that attends the YELLS Community Action Café. She has learned so many things. She has become a great leader even in the home. YELLS have afforded her opportunities that would have otherwise been unattainable by my reach. She has a job and is very confident about her future endeavors and all this is possible because of the YELLS program and their phenomenal staff.
But that is just my kids, I have also benefitted personally from this program with the Achievement Club and being a part of the YELLS committee [Advisory Council] where I get to give my input about the program and what I think it needs more of to improve. Imagine this was with the principals and the big wigs of Marietta City Schools district among others, now tell how great is that. Anyway like I said before YELLS is a blessing and I count my family blessed to be a part of this program.
These wonderful stories of the power of our community and the amazing stats that capture our impact are possible through a partnership with Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute for Public Policy and Resarch. Thanks to our Marietta YELLS 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, we’ve been able to work with an evaluation team to both capture our successes and help us identify areas for growth.
While the above data captures the impact of all three of our programs, our 2018-2019 Summative Evaluation provides even more in-depth analysis of our two daily programs that are a part of our 21st Century Community Learning Center program. We’re proud to share that we achieved 9 out of 10 grant objectives! These objectives area centered around three core goals:
Together, we’re truly creating a community center of learning, leading, and serving that puts our Franklin Gateway youth at a competitive edge in school, in the community, and in life.
