Marietta Country Club ThanksGIVING Golf Classic

YELLS has been actively involved in uplifting the Franklin Gateway community for years, but it’s easy to forget that we are a small grassroots organization that relies on community support to continue the good fight. It is a blessing that our mission to empower the youth of Franklin Gateway resonates so strongly with other groups and organizations, and that they see YELLS as a vessel for them to get involved and make meaningful contributions to this community. In this spirit, we are thrilled to announce that YELLS was chosen to be the beneficiary of this year’s Marietta Country Club ThanksGIVING Charity Golf Classic!

Every November, Marietta Country Club hosts a charity golf tournament with the goal of galvanizing their membership around a good cause. Last year MCC raised over $155,000 for the Center for Children and Young Adults, so it is a huge honor for YELLS to be chosen as the beneficiary for this year’s event! More so, it’s also a great opportunity to build a new partnership with a club that has shown a deep dedication to supporting local community organizations through their unique charitable events.    

“We do try to focus on charities within the local community, specifically Cobb County,” said Stacy Haubenschild, COO of Henssler Financial and chair of the MCC ThanksGIVING Classic. “We do focus on charities that serve children and young adults that face challenges, whether it’s low income, healthcare, education, safety. So those are kind of our two high level governing pieces that we start with when we start reaching out to charities that we feel we can make a definite impact on by the funds that we raise.”

Stacy is president-elect of the Board of Directors at Marietta Country Club, and she says that she’s seen the golf tournament fundraiser grow leaps and bounds since she first joined MCC as a member around 10 years ago. Over that time they’ve watched as the proceeds from this event grew from around $20,000 in its early days to over $155,000 last year! For Stacy, this event is about bringing the broader Marietta community together through a day of exciting golf tournaments, putting contests, silent auctions and raffles, further strengthening community support for MCC’s fundraising efforts. 

“We reach out to a lot of local areas, whether to see if they want to participate in the tournament for golf, or sometimes even just looking for auction items”, Stacy said. “We have a number of local companies, from artists to restaurants that will donate, whether it’s dinners or pieces of artwork. Other golf course facilities around the area will donate rounds of golf for the people to bid on during the tournament and that sort of thing. So it really does bring the entire community together from all these different reaches, not just from the membership of Marietta Country Club.”

We had the opportunity to present to MCC’s selection committee, and we shared a video that helped them fall in love with YELLS and choose us, just like all of our YELLS youth, parents, and alumni!

One thing that will be different this year is that MCC will be hosting a wine tasting for its membership on October 20th in anticipation of the ThanksGIVING Golf Classic. Just like the Golf Classic, proceeds from ticket sales for the wine tasting will also go to YELLS as part of their larger fundraiser! 

This year’s MCC ThanksGIVING Charity Golf Classic will be on November 7th, 2022, with all proceeds directly benefiting YELLS and our programs. If this tournament fundraiser interests you, consider participating by engaging your company (or a group of friends!) as sponsors to enjoy a day of fun and networking with The movers and shakers of Cobb while supporting YELLS!

We would like to thank Marietta Country Club for choosing to support our organization in such a monumental way, and we are so excited to continue to build this great new partnership! We would also like to thank Cobb Community Foundation for their continued support and advocacy for YELLS! The Cobb County community is in good hands.

“I think that’s one of my favorite pieces and what I enjoy being a part of is actually this event,” Stacy said. “We call it a golf tournament, but that’s just what we do to try to raise the funds. But it really is to give back to the community.” 

August 25th Parent Engagement Event

YELLS prides itself on being a community hub where Franklin Gateway residents can come together to engage with city representatives, community leaders, and their fellow neighbors to discuss the needs and expectations of their community. Together we can accomplish more, and on August 25th we hosted our first YELLS Parent Engagement event of the school year! 

The purpose of this event was to establish community connections between YELLS parents, teens, and staff as a first step towards being the change we wish to see on Franklin Gateway. Community connections are strengthened through the sharing of ideas and mutual needs, and this event was a first opportunity for our YELLS Family to come together, get to know one another, and build on the networks that already exist within YELLS. After a brief introduction from our staff, we quickly transitioned to a viewing of the #WeLoveFranklinGateway documentary, which served as a starting point for our community discussions:

This documentary tells the amazing story of how our Community Action Café teens took it upon themselves back in 2016 to galvanize their community after plans were in place to change the name of the street from Franklin Road to Gateway Boulevard. Despite the odds, they rallied together and made it clear to community leaders at the time that this community matters and is paying attention. Ultimately, our teens’ voices were acknowledged and the street retained ‘Franklin’ in its name.

Among other things, this documentary shows us that there is real power in the collective voices of Franklin Gateway. It was also meant to prompt all of us to think about how our community has changed since that video was produced 6 years ago. Community members then broke into small groups of three, mostly consisting of one parent, one staff or board member, and one YELLS teen, and together they discussed the needs and issues facing Franklin Gateway residents as a result of those changes. 

Community Needs

Many residents have seen a sharp increase in rent throughout the community, forcing some to consider moving away from Franklin Gateway in search of more affordable housing. This is partly due to the increasing gentrification of Franklin Gateway; residents shared their stories of how familiar mom-and-pop stores were bought out or torn down in favor of large scale development projects like the Atlanta United training complex or a new Ikea, which has sat as an empty concrete lot since Ikea purchased the property in December of 2017. Additionally, lack of rental assistance in the area further complicates things for residents who have likely not seen an increase in their wages as prices have skyrocketed.

Other neighbors expressed a strong desire for more community spaces for their children to go instead of hanging out in the streets, and lamented that community leaders didn’t take neighbor’s opinions into consideration when deciding the fate of those empty lots. Increased access to existing community spaces like the Franklin Gateway Sports Complex was also brought up from this discussion. Some residents expressed frustration in being unable to use those fields for their own recreation unless they reserved and paid for them, despite the fields being promised to the community as an accessible public good when talks first started to develop the area.

Alumni Bring Voice To FG

We were also honored to invite back two of our YELLS alumni in Destinee Day and YaDeijha Butler! Destinee was our Teen CEO when she was a member of the Community Action Cafe, while YaDeijha was a part of both our YELLS Community Action Cafe and Mentoring Programs, and they spoke to the audience about their experiences growing up on Franklin Gateway at a time when the community was drastically changing. Their stories about how YELLS helped empower them to enact their own meaningful change on Franklin Gateway was inspiring for all of us in attendance, and it pushed community members to think about new ways that they themselves can engage with each other to advocate for the Franklin Gateway community. 

Call To Action

All in all, this event was a brilliant way to connect with neighbors and community members, and it really felt like people walked away from the discussions having learned something new about Franklin Gateway. With this first parent engagement event behind us, YELLS is now looking ahead to our next big event on September 17 called Community Conversations! 

This event is open to the entire Franklin Gateway and beyond, and will be a powerful opportunity for all stakeholders to come together to engage in meaningful discussions around shaping our shared Franklin Gateway neighborhood. We’ll discuss community needs, strengths, concerns, and what’s needed from each of us to build the community we desire. YELLS wants all voices to be heard and knows that we need to mobilize everyone in advocating for our community, and this is your chance to join us at the table. We need YOU!

Be sure to join us on Saturday, September 17 at YELLS for this important community event!

The Franklin Fair

After 2 ½ years of shuttered doors, virtual programming, and canceled community events, the Franklin Fair was finally back and better than ever! Reviving this flagship event after all that time was no easy feat for our Mentoring Bigs; they drafted and sent out countless proposal letters, made dozens of cold calls, and faced setbacks and challenges in the months leading up to the day of this big community project. But thanks to their dogged determination and the incredible generosity of community partners, our Bigs came together on April 30th to organize one of the biggest Franklin Fairs in recent memory! Even more importantly, our Bigs were finally able to bring Franklin Gateway residents together to celebrate the diversity and resilience of their community.

This amazing tradition of our Bigs and Littles leading this day of community-building is made possible through the National Police Athletic League who funds our Marietta PAL/YELLS Mentoring Program.  Just like us, National PAL prioritizes youth growing as change-makers as they give back through service projects.  We also are truly blessed for local partners like Stablegold Hospitality, who became our signature sponsor for the Franklin Fair event.  With that being said, let’s take a look back on some of the best highlights from the day… 

The Big Day

The morning of the Franklin Fair brought with it clear skies and a brisk summer breeze, boding well for the action-packed day to come. With the event slated to kick off at 1pm, Mentoring Bigs and YELLS staff arrived early at the Franklin Gateway Sports Complex to set up the attractions and brief each other on what the day would look like. As community volunteers and local vendors began to trickle in and take their places, our Bigs began to feel the weight of this community project and what it would soon mean for this community.

“It was surreal,” said Daisy, one of the Mentoring Bigs this year who worked on the marketing for the Franklin Fair. “I didn’t expect it to happen, or for so many people to come to be honest but it was so cool to see it all come together on the day!” 

Our Bigs all had their roles for the day– Jevyn, Tristan, and Malai were the designated Game Masters in charge of facilitating and refereeing the main tournament games. Ashanti and Alivia were responsible for holding down the Single Parent’s station, where they teamed up with The Hope Box to provide parents with free baby supplies like diapers, formula, cleaning products, and medicine, as well as connecting families with accessible community resources and social services. And then there was KaMya, who was the Franklin Fair MC for the day! With her mic in hand, KaMya was the official host of the Franklin Fair, welcoming guests, introducing the different performers, and keeping everyone on track throughout the day with updates to the event schedule. Shout-out to “Jessica It’s All Good” for bringing the DJ equipment and coaching KaMya to rock her role as MC! The rest of the Bigs and Littles took their places at their stations and prepared themselves for an exciting day of high-energy games and community service!

The doors to the Franklin Fair opened at 1pm and already people were arriving to the sound of music and the aroma of hot dogs filling the air. As people settled in, they had the chance to walk around and interact with the different community booths and play mini-games like limbo or four square. Eventually, MC KaMya introduced the first entertainment act of the day, a performance from the Marietta High School “Beta Phi” Step Team, led by Mentoring Big Malai! Beta Phi blew us all away with their energetic performance and synchronization, setting a high bar for the rest of the big events of the day.

Pie Eating Contest

Shortly after the hour mark, the first big tournament game of the day was set to begin– the pie eating contest! Contestants were given two minutes to eat as much pie as they could without using their hands, and people rushed to the field to snag a spot around the six contestants who were getting ready to chow down! A few of our Littles L-O-V-E pie and decided to compete, and they were joined by one of our Middles and even Sheriff Jameel Fraser from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department! People cheered the contestants on as they shoved their faces into their pies, doing their best to inhale as much of the pastries as possible before time was up. When all was said and done, the winner of this year’s pie eating contest was one of our own Mentoring Littles, Williams! 

There was plenty for people to do in between the main tournament games. The bouncy castle kept the kids entertained for hours, and community partners lined the field with their tables and offered a variety of services, supplies, and advice for members of the community. Our grill master was serving hot dogs all day which our Bigs handed out to anyone who asked. And whether it was soccer, limbo, basketball or cornhole, people had their pick of carnival-style games to play against their friends as everyone waited for the next big tournament game…

Potato Sack Race

Soon came time for the second big event of the day– the potato sack race! This hugely popular race brought contestants of all ages together to pair up and test their speed and agility against one another. Elementary schoolers versus high schoolers, police officers versus firefighters, we had many community members trying to edge out their competitors for a shot at first place. When all was said and done, the race really came down to a photo finish!

Water Balloon Toss

The last big tournament game of the afternoon was the water balloon toss! This game challenged contestants to work together in pairs to throw as many water balloons from one side to the other without bursting any in the process. With each round contestants took a step back, and inevitably there were splash casualties, but most of the balloons safely made it to the other side! This game was great because anybody could get involved and play, making it an entertaining tournament for everyone. The winners of the first round went head-to-head in the final, with two members of the Beta Phi step team taking home the bragging rights.

When all was said and done, over 300 people attended the 2022 Franklin Fair! It was a beautiful day full of flourishing community connections and an overarching celebration of the Franklin Gateway community. Eventually, after a full day of building community connections and having fun, people slowly started clearing the sports complex and returning home.  As the sun began to set on the Franklin Fair, there was a feeling in the air that something truly monumental happened that day, and that our Mentoring Bigs were at the heart and soul of it. 

“This past Franklin fair was just so incredible after a couple of years of the pandemic really not allowing people not just to have the Franklin Fair, but to have people gathered together,” said Board member George O’Donnell who attended the fair. “And to have an event like Franklin Fair where the whole community was able to come together and have fun and do things together, it was just an amazing experience.”

We want to thank all of the sponsors and partners that supported the Franklin Fair. Without their help, the Franklin Fair would not have been as impactful to this community as it was. Big thank you to Marietta PAL, the City of Marietta, Stablegold Hospitality, the Marietta Police Department, Cobb Collaborative, Catholic Charities Atlanta, Amerigroup, Marietta Fire Department, Krispy Kreme, Grace Chapel Fellowship, and the Franklin Road Community Association. 

We also want to thank all of our vendors and community partners who provided valuable resources, support, and advice to Franklin Gateway residents who attended the Franklin Fair. Thank you to Girls Inc., FRCA, “Jessica It’s All Good”, Secrete The Boss, Amerigroup, Cobb Collaborative, The Hope Box, CORE Georgia, Marietta City Schools, Lockheed Elementary, and former Mentoring Big Miguel Enriquez. 

See you all at the next Franklin Fair!

Partner Spotlight – Learning Spaces

In the past, YELLS has strived to be a hub for the Franklin Gateway community, offering our space as a venue for town hall meetings, community food programs, professional workshops and more. That took a hit during the pandemic as we pivoted to ensure the safety of our youth and staff, but now we’ve reached a point where reopening to the community is once again a possibility!  As we begin to welcome more partners back into our building, we would like to spotlight one such partner that has been using the YELLS space weekly to provide valuable early childhood learning services to young children on Franklin Gateway: McCleskey-East Cobb YMCA and the Learning Spaces program!

Learning Spaces is a United Way of Greater Atlanta initiative that provides a free parent/child pre-K program aimed at helping children ages 0-5 learn and grow in an engaging and playful environment. The aim is to equip these young children with the skills needed to thrive in Kindergarten while learning to socialize with other children in a classroom environment. At the same time, parents learn strategies for supporting their child’s learning and build social connections with other families in their community.  With funding support through the United Way of Greater Atlanta and coordination by the McCleskey-East Cobb YMCA, we’ve been so blessed to be able to bring this impactful model right here to our Franklin Gateway neighborhood. Since April, Learning Spaces has been using the downstairs space at YELLS to host these learn-and-play sessions every Tuesday morning with diverse lesson plans filled with new experiences for the children!

“Every time we meet, I try to teach the kids something new that they don’t know,” said Learning Spaces Coordinator Maria Daniel. “We do reading time first, and everything is done in English and Spanish. I like to emphasize the key words in English, and have all the kids repeat it. So during story time, if we talk about a lion, we ask what the lion does, and then have them all repeat it in English. After story time, we have crafts where we’ll create something related to what we read. And after that’s done, we do singing and dance time, and that’s usually fun, the kids have a blast.”

Learning Spaces Serving Franklin Gateway Community

The majority of families that attend only speak Spanish at home, and offering Learning Spaces as a bilingual program provides these young children with plenty of opportunities to speak English in a classroom setting while still learning alongside their mothers in their native language. Additionally, Maria says the YELLS space has been a perfect location for the program, giving her the freedom to focus more on exposing the children to new experiences.

“The space, the access to tables, chairs, everything set up, this is ideal! I think they all like to see the different colors on the walls, the artwork, it’s just what a regular classroom is going to look like,” Maria said of the downstairs Afterschool space. “Even getting their hands in paint and getting that feeling. I know at home, they won’t always do that because it’s a mess and it’s a whole preparation at home… So here, that was so much fun to do and working a lot of fine motor skills. They loved it, getting their hands wet with paint, then using the scissors, and then trying to hold the pencil or crayon to write out something really close to their name.”

Learning Spaces also fills an important need in the Franklin Gateway community by providing preschoolers with exposure to educational materials and resources that they may not ordinarily interact with at home. Maria says that she noticed some of the young children didn’t know how to properly use scissors, so they spent time practicing the cutting motions without paper first, and then introducing the paper later. She noted that this could be signs that a child might be behind in his or her social development compared to children that age. But Maria is optimistic that Learning Spaces can help fill those gaps in a child’s early development and prepare them for what’s to come in Kindergarten.

“Sometimes I think I am over-cramming my day, giving them too much to do, but they remember and they pick it up. A mom told me today that her daughter listens to the song that we played here and she does it at the park. She’s actually listening and following the step. So they’re incorporating this into everyday (life), not just Tuesday,” Maria said.

We would like to thank McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA and the Learning Spaces staff for facilitating these important child education classes to families in the community, as well as the United Way of Greater Atlanta for making this work possible. YELLS is truly honored to work with Learning Spaces to make this program more accessible for Franklin Gateway families and children. By working together we truly can do more!

Learning Spaces meets every Tuesday at YELLS from 10AM-12PM, and all families with children ages 0-5 are welcome to stop by and attend a class!

Funder Spotlight – Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

Since its inception in 2008, YELLS has been fiercely committed to serving and empowering the youth of Franklin Gateway so that they see themselves as change-makers in their own community. While it hasn’t always been easy sailing, one of our saving graces has been the fact that our mission has resonated with so many funders who have remained committed to supporting our organization over the years. This month, we would like to spotlight longtime funder Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (LCR) in Marietta, along with church member and YELLS board member George O’Donnell!

YELLS’ partnership with LCR goes back all the way to 2014. By that point, George had been a member of the church for almost 20 years and was looking for new youth mentorship volunteer opportunities when he came across a local news article highlighting YELLS’ recognition by the Atlanta Regional Commission. He contacted Laura at the time to inquire how he and his church might get involved in supporting and uplifting our programs.   

“We found out that Laura was moving YELLS from an apartment community that was being torn down on Franklin Road into an office building, and she needed some work done to remodel and I think she had some struggles getting funding for the scope of what she wanted to do,” George said. “My group of retired gentlemen from our church pitched in and tore down walls and did electrical work and plumbing work and drywall work and within about six weeks, got YELLS finished out the way Laura wanted it and they were able to begin operation.”

That was 8 years ago, and in that time LCR has been one of YELLS’ most consistent partners, supporting our programs in many different ways!

Lutheran Church of the Resurrection 

George first joined Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in 1995, and he says that what drew him to the church initially was their strong focus on community service. In the past the church has been involved in various community programs aimed at mentoring youth, and when those programs were ultimately discontinued due to lack of funding, George turned to YELLS as a like-minded organization doing similar things for the Franklin Gateway community. What began as volunteer electrical work and building maintenance soon evolved into one of our most long-lasting and reliable partnerships!

“YELLS has been supported by our church financially every year since we first started working with YELLS, and we continue that financial support. We also have a tradition within our church every September to do what we call ‘God’s Work. Our Hands.’, and that’s a denomination-wide effort to energize congregations to help in their community, especially hands-on, helping to do a variety of tasks to help nonprofits or other things in the community. So we have a long tradition of doing touch up paint and painting walls and repairing things at YELLS on that second weekend in September every year,” George said.

LCR has also been known to show up throughout the year to perform maintenance work for our organization, whether it’s plumbing or drywall repairs, electrical work or technology support. George has been a member of the YELLS Board for a few years now, and he has often acted as a facilitator for volunteer opportunities between YELLS and LCR. Many of the retired gentlemen in George’s volunteer group have a wide range of skills and expertise from past careers that they draw upon to make a difference at our organization. All of the technology infrastructure that YELLS has was installed by members of LCR who were former electricians, including the WiFi and the security cameras throughout the building. A group of LCR folks even led a series of workshops that taught our YELLS Community Action Cafe teens how to design and build their own stage for their Cafe!

Remarkably, LCR’s involvement at YELLS still doesn’t stop there! At the beginning of the year, our Mentoring Program was in a bind because their usual meeting place would no longer be available to use. It was through George that we met Mr. Richard Leon, Director of Sales and Marketing at The Radisson Hotel, who opened the hotel doors for our Mentoring Bigs and Littles to meet every week. Richard is also a longtime member of LCR and a good friend of George’s, and this piece of hospitality was one of the most important ways a partner supported YELLS this year. You can learn more about Richard Leon and the Radisson’s involvement in the YELLS Mentoring Program here!

We are forever grateful for the ongoing support of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection and George O’Donnell. As the years go on and people come and go, it’s a beautiful thing to see that our mission of serving the youth of Franklin Gateway inspires other organizations to join us and stay committed to this cause! Thank you George O’Donnell and LCR! 

Volunteer Spotlight – Amanda Jimenez Biehler

YELLS has seen many volunteers over the years that have impacted the lives of both our staff and the youth we serve. However, few have impacted our organization like one of our AmeriCorps Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA), who dedicated a year of her life to growing the operational capacity of YELLS in the midst of an unpredictable pandemic while simultaneously supporting our 3 programs every day. This month, we are spotlighting our amazing Volunteer Specialist, Amanda Jimenez Biehler, who is wrapping up her year of service with AmeriCorps!

Amanda was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, where she was involved in community service from a young age. She joined Girl Scouts in Kindergarten, introducing her to service projects and volunteer work, but Amanda says it was her family that really instilled in her a passion for helping those in need.

“With my family growing up, we would feed the homeless once a month. My entire family, all my cousins, aunts, uncles, we’d make a whole meal and then feed all the homeless in an area in town,” she said. “And when I got older, I think it was in high school, I started coordinating that. So I’ve always really liked to volunteer, I’ve done a ton of volunteer work. I was president of Youth for Direct Relief at my high school, which Direct Relief is a huge volunteer organization. I worked with fundraising and just doing different volunteer things like making mother kits and hygiene kits to hand out in the area. That’s how I’ve always enjoyed it.”

Amanda & YELLS 

After graduating from UC Santa Barbara with degrees in biology and applied psychology, Amanda moved to Atlanta in the summer of 2021 with her husband Michael, who was set to begin a PhD program at Georgia Tech. She didn’t know what she would do during that time, but she wanted to find something that could allow her to serve a community, much like she did back home. Amanda stumbled across YELLS during her job search and was drawn in by the opportunity to be immersed in the Franklin Gateway community as an AmeriCorps VISTA. 

“I really liked the fact that they focused on one community. I thought that would make it a little easier for me to make an impact working in one smaller area because Atlanta is huge. So because they work in a niche area, it’d be easier to make an impact and also get to know a community and the people that live there and the culture,” Amanda said.

Amanda officially joined YELLS on June 7, 2021, and has become an indispensable member of the YELLS family ever since! As our Volunteer Specialist, she coordinated with new and returning volunteers in our programs and worked with community partners to organize exciting volunteer opportunities. Amanda also built the capacity of our organization by engaging with families and community members in both English and Spanish, ensuring that language was not a barrier when accessing our services. But her work at YELLS extends far beyond just the volunteer realm! From the beginning she has stepped up and supported our three programs when needed, especially when it comes to filling in for the Mentoring Program and ASP.

“As soon as she came on and joined us last summer, she immediately understood the vision and rose to the occasion as far as stepping in and prepping and planning for the summer,” said ASP Coordinator Ms. Sherri. “She took a leadership role amongst newer staff, even though she was new herself, and I admired that from her. Since then, a lot of what we have been able to accomplish over the year probably would not have been completed had it not been for her, not only in supporting the staff, but championing things for us to do.”

In reflecting on the past year, Amanda says that she is most proud of the confidence she found in using her voice during her year of service to champion our youth. Whether it’s communicating with coworkers or advocating for our youth, she says that now she doesn’t shy away from speaking up and providing her ideas and input. A great example of this is the recent Scholar Dollars initiative that was implemented in ASP, which Amanda spearheaded along with our Scholar Success Specialist, Jamie.

“It all started with a conversation between Jamie and I. We were talking one day and talking about how in school, if you can guess the number of marbles in a jar in class, you can earn things,” Amanda said. “So it was really cool to see that from that conversation, we made it into something that the kids really enjoyed, and that it helped a lot of kids. For the ones that were really into it, I think it helped get their schoolwork done, and also gave them incentive to do more reading and things like that.”

Life After YELLS

With her year of service ending in early June, Amanda will continue part-time at YELLS Summer Camp as the ASP Social-Emotional Learning Specialist. After the summer, Amanda says she sees herself taking a few months of maternity leave to rest and prepare for the arrival of her first child, a baby girl! We all know she is going to be an excellent mother, and eventually she does see herself returning to school to receive a degree in clinical mental health counseling with the hope of one day working again with children in a community.

“Through this experience, I have come to realize that in the future I want to continue working with youth in some capacity. I have really enjoyed playing a role in helping shape and expose the youth to new things. Becoming a VISTA has helped me decide on wanting to be a counselor specifically working with youth or in the school systems in my future.”

Thank you Amanda for a truly remarkable year of service! You made an incredible impact at YELLS and the Franklin Gateway community, and your work in our organization will be remembered for a long time!

If you or someone you know is looking for a life changing experience like Amanda enjoyed through VISTA, consider joining our YELLS AmeriCorps VISTA team!  Click here for more details on our VISTA roles.

YELLS Hosts Marietta Police Department Town Hall

On May 10th, 2022, YELLS had the pleasure of hosting its first Marietta Police Department Town Hall in over 2 years! Led by Major Jake King, the town hall was a real opportunity for Franklin Gateway residents to come together and engage with city representatives about the needs and concerns of their community. It was also great to see our Community Action Café teens get involved in the town hall as YELLS hosts, introducing speakers and addressing their community in a formal setting!

Crime Report

After an introduction from our Café teens, Major King began the town hall by lauding the 10 year decline in crime rates in Zone 1 (where Franklin Gateway is located). Of the 7,110 “calls of service” made to the Marietta Police Department in April 2022, only 788 of those came from Zone 1, and only 4 burglaries in Zone 1 were reported to police during that time. When asked what he attributes to declining crime rates in the zone, Major King cited a combination of positive city council decisions coupled with efforts from community programs, schools, and residents to get involved and make their community safer. As the only youth-focused non-profit on Franklin Gateway, YELLS is proud to be one of the community partners impacting the reduction in crime for Franklin Gateway.  Since our daily youth programs began in 2011, crime has decreased by 59.42% in our neighborhood. Major King also praised the city’s new Public Safety Ambassador Program as an effective tool in handling the more innocuous and day-to-day issues affecting community members.

“Through the city council, they hired 12 (citizens as Public Safety Ambassadors), and we defer it like this: there’s some calls where you don’t need a gun Toter (police officer). Your tag was taken off your car overnight, you have no idea who took it, you just need a police report. Do you just need a report or do you need me to show up? You just need to report. So we have civilians that drive around in those silver Ford Escapes and they take all the reports for us, and direct traffic and stuff. So they are a force multiplier for us and help us and they also are really good crime scene technicians,” Major King said.

Play this audio to hear Major King’s thoughts on the decrease in crime rates, as well as new employment opportunities through the city’s Public Safety Ambassadors Program.

Community Members Engage With City Council Representatives

The town hall was also attended by City Councilmembers Joseph Goldstein (Ward 7) and Cheryl Richardson (Ward 1), who offered community updates and fielded questions from their constituents. Councilman Goldstein began by saying that overall the city is doing well and is about to enter a new fiscal year on July 1st. The city is looking at decreasing the millage rate slightly, possibly decreasing property taxes as well. He also touched on a new federal program called the Affordable Connectivity Plan, which could reimburse customers up to $30 per month on eligible internet plans (go to https://www.fcc.gov/acp for more information).

Many of the questions the council members received from community members in attendance had to do with the physical development of Franklin Gateway. When asked about the ongoing but slow-moving plan to construct an Ikea in the vacant lot across from Iguala’s Market, Councilman Goldstein said the city has not received updates from Ikea on that development in several years. 

Councilwoman Richardson was asked about the possibility of having a community center on Franklin Gateway.  FRCA co-president Antoinette Reed shared that YELLS is looking for a larger space that could provide even more opportunities for children and families, and the neighborhood has long been in need of community space that is publicly accessible to Franklin Gateway residents.  While she said there were no allocated funds in the current SPLOST for a community center, Councilwoman Richardson did mention the planning and development of the Rottenwood Creek Trail, which will link Franklin Gateway all the way to Kennesaw Mountain via a paved trail, although she mentioned it would be a few years before the trail opens for public use. 

Listen to City Council members Joseph Goldstein and Cheryl Richardson elaborate on the development of Rottenwood Creek Trail here:

“Seems like a lot of the questions were around infrastructure and the things that we can do to improve the physical nature of the community,” said candidate for Georgia House District 43 Ben Stahl after the town hall. “Not a lot of people were asking about crime or jobs or things like that, and those are kind of those intangible things that you can’t see. A lot of the questions were about those things you can see. Everyone was asking about the crosswalks, the buses, dilapidated houses, the IKEA spot, the spot on the north side of the road. And those all take time and money to fix those problems. And really, it starts at these kinds of events.”

Opportunities for Community Engagement

The Franklin Road Community Association (FRCA) co-president, Antoinette Reed, also raised a call to action for attendees to get involved and give back to their community. FRCA is a group made up of Franklin Gateway residents, and they are planning their annual Back to School Bash on July 23. Registration for this event is open now, and they are in need of neighbors and volunteers to join the planning committee to make this community-driven event possible!  If you’d like to get involved and attend our planning meetings, please reach out to Daneea Badio-McCray at dbadio@mariettaga.gov.

Community Action Café Teens Take The Lead!

It was especially exciting to watch our Community Action Café teens facilitating this town hall as hosts! Two of our teens, Amiyah and Evan, opened the meeting with a strong bilingual introduction of Major King, and Andrew closed us out with a series of YELLS updates and thanked everybody for coming out. We’re proud of the way our teens took the initiative to stand in front of their community and speak with confidence and intent, and this certainly was not lost on the adults in attendance. 

“I personally think it went well! It is always, in my mind, great to see the kids not only sitting in and asking questions, but also running it. So I’m always impressed with that.” said Councilwoman Richardson. “And this was a great turnout, attendance wise. I’ve been to places where we’ve had four people. So this is wonderful. It shows the interest in the community.”

All in all, the MPD Town Hall was an evening filled with engaging discussions between city representatives and residents of Franklin Gateway. YELLS is proud to be able to serve as a hub for the Franklin Gateway community, and we look forward to hosting more town halls in the future!

 If you’re interested in learning more about the topics discussed at the Marietta Police Department Town Hall, play the audio below for further community updates from Major King and the City Council members representing Franklin Gateway:

Funder Spotlight – Stablegold Hospitality

In our efforts to revive the Franklin Fair after a two year hiatus, we are blessed to have the incredible continuing support from Stablegold Hospitality! For years, the team at Stablegold have demonstrated their commitment to our work of empowering youth and families in our community, and this year they took it a step further!

This year’s Franklin Fair is being organized by the Bigs in the YELLS Mentoring Program as a way for them to give back to the community that they call home. Like any community event, there is a lot of planning and coordination that must go into making the day a success, and at times our Bigs have run into obstacles securing donations and supplies for the fair. Luckily for our Bigs, they can rest easy knowing that Stablegold has got them covered! 

Stablegold recently gave a generous contribution to be used to support the Franklin Fair and ensure that our Bigs have everything they need for a successful community event! On top of that, they have committed to providing and covering the expenses for food to be at the event, meaning that guests and community members can enjoy free food as they enjoy the day and interact with the different games and booths! There is no understating how huge this is; Stablegold’s multiple contributions will go a long way in supporting our Bigs and the Franklin Fair, making sure it will be an event to remember for a long time.

In the past, Mr. Ali Jamal and his team have shown that they truly care about giving back to and investing in the youth of our Franklin Gateway community.  On top of sponsoring our Tenth Anniversary Networking Dinner, they also engage in our youth-led events, give generously to our cause, and have even supported YELLS families in crisis through temporary housing. With these most recent contributions, it is only right that Stablegold Hospitality has been chosen to be our Funder Spotlight this month! A massive thank you to everyone at Stablegold who believes in the YELLS mission!

Partner Spotlight – Chris Roupp, Synergy Systems & Solutions

YELLS is blessed with so many partners that pour into our youth and community and make our work possible.  Often when we think about these amazing partners, our first impulse is to consider those that work directly with our youth.  But the truth is that partners come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s extra special to see partners contributing to YELLS in their own way, even if they don’t directly work in youth empowerment.  These partners think outside of the box to harness their gifts and resources to contribute and make a significant impact on our day-to-day operations. This month, we would like to recognize a new partner who fits this mold, and that is Chris Roupp with Synergy Systems and Solutions!

Chris is the Managing Partner of Synergy Systems and Solutions, a copier company based in Atlanta. A few years ago, in the early days of building his company, Chris found himself walking through Franklin Gateway and introducing himself to different local businesses, offering his services if needed. It was during this walk that Chris first stumbled upon YELLS, and what started as a simple conversation about printing services quickly evolved into a broader discussion about the YELLS mission and how we empower our youth to give back and serve their community. Chris said that something about that initial conversation struck a familiar chord in him.

“So my whole family are educators. And I sell copiers. But I have a strong leaning toward that, and toward the purpose of what you guys are trying to accomplish. So as soon as I got that feeling, then I was like, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m finally in a position where I get to make decisions about what I want to do for supporting organizations and stuff.’ It’s not like I’ve got a ton of income coming in. We just started probably weeks before I first stopped in to see YELLS. But what I can do is I can give you a copier, and I can give you services associated with it. So that’s the piece that I can provide.”

At the time, YELLS didn’t have an immediate need for a free copier. But a few years later, our Executive Director, Laura, did reach back out to Chris asking if his offer was still on the table, and a month ago Chris personally came to YELLS to install a brand new copier along with associated services like ink cartridges at no cost to our organization! The donated copier and printing savings has been a game changer, allowing us to print the resources we need for engaging lessons and the fliers our youth create to promote their events for our community. The incredible value of this contribution is felt every day.  This kind gesture was not lost on us, and it further served to remind us that the work we do isn’t lost on those who cross paths with our organization.

“Part of my vision when I opened up the company is that when it comes to being a member of an association to support, I wanted to pick two that I really believed in and go full bore with those two,” Chris explained. “And very similar, I’m not going to donate copiers all over town. I’m not doing this to get my name out there or to be able to name drop or earn more business; I’m doing it because I really believe in the mission of what you guys are trying to accomplish. I probably meet with 100 different businesses every day, and I’m sure 99 of them would love to have a donated copier. But it really has to be something that speaks to me and also, on the selfish end, fills that void of doing something to be able to help out in that education space that I’m not fully contributing to.”

Moving forward, Chris sees a couple of ways for this partnership to continue growing. He has always been a firm believer that sales can be a great equalizer for a lot of people, and expressed interest in possibly leading workshops with our Community Action Cafe teens about the power of sales as a viable career path. Many of the YELLS values that we aim to instill in our youth, values like self-respect, having a growth mindset, and a willingness to always improve, also correlate to success in a sales field. Chris thinks giving teens  alternative options on how to proceed in life can go a long way in helping them get to where they want to go. 

We’re very grateful to Chris Roupp and his generous donation to YELLS! Sometimes what makes a great partner is simply an appreciation of the values we share, and a willingness to contribute to our mission. Although Chris doesn’t work in youth empowement, his actions just go to show that these shared values can transcend industries. 

“For me, I’m not an educator like the rest of my family. But these are little things that I can do along the way, in order to still get back to what I believe is a righteous cause.”

Youth Spotlight – Abigail and Joshua Saho!

Whenever possible, we like to take a moment to pause and celebrate some of our amazing youth who exemplify our YELLS values in beautiful and inspiring ways. At the heart of our mission is to serve and empower our youth to see themselves as change-makers, equipped with the tools and knowledge to make their world a better place. This week, we are spotlighting Abigail and Joshua Saho, two of our ASP Scholars who were recently published in a book!

Abby (9) and Joshua (7) are sister and brother in our Afterschool Program, and they recently had some of their writing included in Stories by Children, a collection of short stories and poems published by The Fernance and Cyrilla Family Club (FCFC). FCFC is a family organization formed by descendants of Fernance and Cyrilla Prince of Grand Fond, Dominica, who also happened to be Abigail and Joshua’s great grandparents! 

“We have a group called FCFC, because my great grandparents, their names are Fernance and Cyrilla,” Abby says. “So that’s the name of the group and my extended family on my mother’s side, we’re really close. Since Corona hit, we couldn’t do family reunions anymore. So we would do Zoom, and we were like, ‘we need something else to bring us closer together.’ So we said, ‘Hey, all of us like writing, how about we write a book?’”  

And write a book they did! In January 2021, FCFC created Stories by Children, Volume 1 as a literary movement celebrating the poems, prose, and short stories written by the children of Dominica and the diaspora. This movement aims to create excitement about reading and writing while providing an avenue for creative expression and boosting the self-esteem of children of the extended Prince family. 

Volume 1 is all about FAMILY, which is fitting considering that many of the children featured in the book are Abby and Joshua’s cousins and extended family! This book is a reminder of the family bonds that connect them all together even as they are scattered around the world. When the book was published, FCFC organized a listening party where the kids had the chance to read their stories on the public radio!

“It was not in this country; it was in Dominica. They had a party and we were all on the radio because not a lot of people over there like TV. So they have radios and there was music playing and it was really fun! I got to listen to myself on the radio and I felt so special,” Abby said with a smile.

The Fernance and Cyrilla Family Club intend to build on this literary movement by releasing a second volume of Stories by Children, and Abby and Joshua are already working on the stories they want to include in that edition. Joshua has a knack for writing fun poems, while Abby’s favorite stories to write are fiction, and she often puts herself at the center of her stories as the main character!

“I like reading and word study and how words are spelled. So I like writing more, because I can go more into it with the words… When I read it over, it really shows an adventure. I can feel what I’m saying in each part (of the story).”

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go into an education fund for the authors, so please consider purchasing a copy to support Abby, Joshua, and the other young child authors on their literary adventures! Copies of Volume 1 (and soon Volume 2!) of Stories by Children are available for purchase here. Everyone at YELLS is so proud of Abby and Joshua for their hard work, and we can’t wait to read what they write next!