We are truly fortunate to have volunteers who come in and work hands-on with our kids, making sure they have the support and resources they need to thrive. This month, we’re spotlighting a special new volunteer who has been leading our ASP kids and CAC teens in valuable social-emotional learning workshops: Sarah Gazaway from Georgia State University’s HAPPI Lab!
Sarah Gazaway is a third year doctoral student in the counseling psychology program at Georgia State, and she has been a part of the HAPPI Lab since 2017. For the past few months, Sarah has been leading positive psychology workshops tailored to both our café teens upstairs and our ASP kids downstairs. These workshops are designed to introduce our kids to the idea of practicing positive psychology as a way to improve their social and emotional health!
“My goal in partnering with YELLS is, in those short amounts of time that we have together, to try to create a practical application of some positive psychology practices, be it gratitude, or humility or forgiveness, that they can practice during the week, either with fellow peers, with their family, or even at their school. And it really rounds it down into how you actually do it and practice it together,” Sarah said.
The HAPPI LAB
The HAPPI Lab, a.k.a the Humility and the Advancement of Positive Psychology Interventions Lab, was founded by Sarah’s advisor, Dr. Don Davis, with the intention of helping students develop expertise in positive psychology while also researching the benefits that positive psychology can have on people’s wellbeing. Sarah describes positive psychology as “the study of the good life”; strengths-based approaches to living that can help us all develop more meaningful lives! Through this lens, Sarah and the HAPPI Lab began doing outreach to help take what they were learning in the research realm and apply it to different populations. This ultimately led Sarah to connecting with YELLS, where she has since led different workshops for our kids based on their scientific research.
It’s been amazing to see how our kids have engaged with Sarah’s workshops over the weeks! In one of her lessons, Sarah taught our kids about how to identify positive character strengths in each other, and she adjusted her lesson plan to fit the needs of the teens upstairs and the smaller kids downstairs. Her workshop with the teens was casual and conversational, whereas with the ASP kids her lesson was more structured and high energy, but both workshops got our kids thinking about what it means to possess these character strengths. In another workshop, Sarah talked about how showing gratitude can play a meaningful role in our kids’ happiness and facilitate conversations that strengthen their relationships with family and friends.
“There’s such power in relationships,” said Sarah. “And really relationships where there are mentors, people who can regularly speak into the lives of these kids to say, ‘Here are the strengths I see that you have, and here’s how I see you doing that’, and guiding them, like scaffolding approaches to help them see how they can use those strengths to take a step towards a life that they want to live.”
“And yet also,” Sarah continues, “I’m presenting content, especially for the high schoolers, that’s actually pretty deep in nature, and not what they usually do. In the gratitude workshop, for example, they’re not usually talking about who’s meant something in their life, and then writing a letter to that person that they may intentionally give to them; that can feel really uncomfortable. So I am definitely pushing them early. And I’ve appreciated any of the space that they’ve allowed that to happen. So I try to not take that for granted.”
As our relationship with the HAPPI Lab continues to grow, Sarah said she’s looking ahead towards expanding the HAPPI Lab’s reach in the community. The HAPPI Lab is developing a content team that Sarah said will create more formalized positive psychology workshops designed for specific age groups and organizations. This team will soon begin creating understandable and entertaining content for all of our YELLS kids, from the kindergarteners to our high schoolers, that aligns with the YELLS principles while still maintaining the freedom to teach this information in the best way possible. Sarah’s hope is to one day go even further by developing positive psychology workshops for our parents as well, as she feels that these practices are most effective when the whole family is engaged with the ideas she’s teaching at YELLS.
“One of the things that’s really great is that I really feel like this partnership is one where I’m just helping bolster that which is already happening at YELLS. That YELLS mission really is a strengths-based model, one of servant leadership, one of helping grow these students to utilize their strengths to serve the community, and in that way, to thrive as individuals. And so that’s wonderful. That’s really what we’re about. So it was a really easy ‘yes’ for me when Laura came and asked, ‘Do you want to partner with us?’, because we really believe in what YELLS was doing.”
Thank you so much to Sarah and the HAPPI Lab for bringing these important positive psychology workshops into YELLS! We look forward to continuing this partnership and seeing how our kids begin to use some of what they’re learning in Sarah’s workshops in their own lives!
Back in 2008, YELLS started out as a mentoring program only, matching Marietta High School ‘Bigs’ with 3rd-5th grade Franklin Gateway ‘Littles’ in personalized mentoring relationships that the students then nurture throughout the year. Since then, YELLS has evolved into a dynamic and multifaceted organization that serves the Franklin Gateway community with three different programs. But the Mentoring Program has always stood apart from the others as a special after-school experience that provides the opportunity for elementary school Littles to be mentored by a high school Big, empowering each other to rise up as leaders while serving their community.
In years past, our mentoring youth have organized various community projects aimed at serving the residents of Franklin Gateway. From neighborhood-wide soccer tournaments to the annual Franklin Fair, these community projects are the result of months of consistent hard work and dedication from our Bigs and Littles. So when COVID-19 shut down all YELLS operations back in March 2020, our Mentoring Program Coordinator, Ms. Brittany, had to rethink how this program could serve these students during this difficult period in their lives.
“In 2019 when I accepted the job, 2020 happened. Projects were canceled; 2021 the same thing. So I have not seen what the big grand finale is supposed to be with these kids. My grand finale was always different,” Ms. Brittany said. “For a lot of our virtual programming and concepts, I had to take the emphasis off of creating community projects; it was more so about surviving the pandemic mentally. A lot of the lessons and everything that we began to talk about was about taking care of yourself during the virtual world, protecting your peace, treating others the way you want to be treated, being a leader, being a light that shines in dark places, those types of things.”
As important as these life skills are for kids to practice during a pandemic, the past two years have certainly been a challenge for the Mentoring Program. Our Bigs had to juggle the emotional toll of the pandemic while attending virtual school during the day, and once it came time for students to log on to Zoom for the Mentoring Program, Ms. Brittany said some students had lost the motivation to connect. As the program coordinator, this hit her hard, and when our programs finally returned to in-person for the start of the 2021/22 school year, Ms. Brittany was fired up to revive the Mentoring Program and provide a safe space for Bigs and Littles to mentor and support each other. More so, she was determined to make the program a meaningful and exciting experience for the students by building up the anticipation for the big day when the Bigs and Littles finally discovered their permanent mentoring match! This is called the Match Party, and it is a fundamental part of this program. Celebrating this milestone goes a long way in how the Bigs and Littles approach and ultimately realize their community projects.
“The whole point of this program existing is for them to be mentors and mentees to one another. So if (the match party) is not special, what’s making it special for them to even want to be a part of this program? That’s how I began to look at it,” Ms. Brittany said. “Once you finally bring them all in a room, and it’s like ‘Hey, somebody across the room from you is going to be your mentor and y’all are gonna do the school year together.’ If that’s the root and the foundation of this program, knowing that this is going to be your person and this is gonna be your person, why not drag it out and make it dramatic and exciting!”
That being said, the Match Party is only successful through the hard work that our youth put in during the weeks building up to that day. And there was a lot of work to be done before they could reap the rewards!
Mentoring Boot Camp
The purpose of the Mentoring Program is to equip our Bigs with the skills and training they need to impact their community while setting a positive example for their Littles. But before our Bigs even get to meet the Littles, they have to attend a weekend of leadership training that we call Mentoring Boot Camp! Led by Ms. Brittany, the Mentoring Boot Camp gives our Bigs their first taste of the Mentoring Program and sets the expectations for the year. It is in these training sessions that they first learn how to use their newfound leadership skills to successfully mentor their Littles while also serving their community.
This year, Mentoring Boot Camp started off with outdoor communication games that challenged our Bigs to communicate effectively to overcome obstacles that might arise when working towards a common goal. As they eventually begin organizing their community projects, these communication skills will be key in delegating tasks and solving real-world problems in order to see their hard work come to life. Additionally, every game that they play during Boot Camp are games that they can lead for the Littles later on, so learning these leadership skills plays an important role for our Bigs in developing their special mentoring relationships.
Next up, our Bigs set off on a community-wide scavenger hunt armed with pen and paper to assess the needs of Franklin Gateway. They took notes on the community needs and assets that they found, and in doing so learned to think critically about the ways that they can impact and serve their community! After exploring Franklin Gateway, our Bigs reconvened in the Community Action Café where they discussed the strengths and areas for growth they observed throughout the community, pinning their observations on the wall to create a giant mind-map.
The back wall of the Community Action Café became a tapestry of community needs and good ideas, and visualizing these needs gave our Bigs a strong framework of the kinds of community projects that would best address the needs of people living on Franklin Gateway. This was vital as our Bigs began to understand that they possess the knowledge and power required to leave a lasting impact on their community.
“I feel like the fact that as teenagers, they’ve already made the decision to want to even be a part of the organization before they even know what the organization is going to give them. I think they’re set apart to be a different type of person, a different type of teenager.” Ms. Brittany said. “So it doesn’t make it hard to take them on this journey because they already stepped out the first box, which is what high school was supposed to be or what they’re supposed to do as a high school teenager. They’re just ready to be different.”
First Day of Mentoring
Shortly after boot camp, all of our mentoring kids came together for day one of the Mentoring Program for that year! This was the first real opportunity for Bigs and Littles to meet each other, and it was also the first opportunity for Ms. Brittany to set the tone for what the kids should expect from this program. She’s had a vision of what this program is meant to look like since 2019, and the time has finally come to follow through on those expectations and hit the ground running!
More than anything, day one of the Mentoring Program serves to introduce our youth to the ‘one tribe’ mentality needed to succeed in this program. This is the theme of the Mentoring Program, and as in any tribe, our Mentoring Program youth must operate as a collective in order to achieve their goals for this year and foster their mentoring relationships.
“A tribe is a group of people or organization of people that work together, to live, to eat, to take care of one another and things of that sort. And I think that means a lot,” Ms. Brittany said. “So for the mentoring kids in the YELLS space, us being this group of people that have to work with little kids and give to the community and all of these things, we are doing a lot together. And I feel like the only way for us to be able to accomplish the things that we’re supposed to do within a year is if we’re all on the same page of understanding that foundation; that we’re doing this together, we’re a unit of people, we’re a group of people. So therefore we need to operate as a tribe, we need to have that mentality for us to all be successful.”
Day one was mostly spent playing different group games where our youth got the chance to learn more about one another while working together. It was also Ms. Brittany’s first chance to gauge compatibility between different Bigs and Littles, and this would serve to inform her decisions on how to later pair the Bigs and Littles at the Match Party.
Mentoring Cause Tables
A month later, our Bigs came in for their first real test as community servant-leaders. They were tasked with hosting a Cause Tables event, bringing together community expert guests to learn about and discuss a wide array of pertinent social causes. As our Bigs began to dream about using their skills and passions to make change, our Cause Tables event provided an opportunity for them to engage with different perspectives and ideas for how they can better understand the needs within our Franklin Gateway community and generate lasting change.
This event was a significant moment for our mentoring kids because it was their first chance to take charge of something bigger than themselves in this program! Our high school Bigs practiced their public speaking and leadership skills as they introduced their guests, welcomed them into the YELLS space, and facilitated important conversations about how to serve their community as it relates to those challenges. The experts we brought in held a wealth of knowledge relating to topics like soccer and community building, the Black Lives Matter movement, the power of social media, strengthening police relations in the community, and more! As our Bigs went around to each table and engaged with experts, these discussions began to spur ideas among our Bigs on how they can best apply this information to their future community projects.
Special thanks to all of our special guests who shared their wisdom and experiences with our high school Bigs! These guests include:
Mrs. Daneea Badio-McCray, Marietta Police Athletic League Exec. Director, and Sergeant Cliff Kelkerwith the Cobb County Sheriff Department: Strengthening police + community relations
Dr. Folami Prescott Adams, CEO of HTI Catalysts: Black Lives Matter and Listening 4 Justice
Jason Longshore, Commentator for Atlanta United FC: Soccer and Community Building
Kevin Keefe, Engineer at Emory University: Transit and People-Centered Community
DeyStegall, founder of ‘Pour Girls’: The Power of Social Media
We look forward to the passion projects our Bigs create and how they will make a lasting difference for our Franklin Gateway Community alongside their Littles!
The Match Party!
Finally the big day came when our Bigs and Littles would learn their official mentoring matches! The Match Party is a big deal, and Ms. Brittany wanted the kids to feel that energy the second they walked in the room. The theme of the party this year was Fear Factor: scattered around The Radisson were different stations, each with a challenge that our mentoring kids had to complete in order to receive a clue that would bring them a step closer to uncovering their mentoring matches!
“This year was the first year of really upping the ante and building the suspense!” Ms. Brittany said. “And not only that, Brandon (a Little), bless his heart, back in 2019 he left a message in our suggestion box and I never let it go: less talking, more games. These kids come here on Tuesday ready to experience something. I have been told over the years that ‘Tuesday’s my favorite day of the week’ or ‘I love mentoring’ or ‘Ms Brittany what we doing this year?’ It’s an excitement that they have about this program, and I can’t let them down, right? I wanted them to be as fear factored and pushed to the limits and build as much suspense as possible. So Match Day happened.”
And pushed to the limits they were! Each challenge was an opportunity for our Bigs and Littles to jump out of their comfort zone and demonstrate to each other the characteristics needed to thrive in the Mentoring Program. Being a risk-taker, going above and beyond for your tribe, uplifting each other to achieve a shared goal; all of this was on display as Bigs and Littles navigated the Fear Factor course. But above all else, Ms. Brittany wanted the Bigs and Littles to have fun and make lasting memories as they progressed through each station together.
Some of the challenges they faced included sticking their arm into mystery boxes filled with slimy substances to fish out clues, or a blind taste testing that pushed our youth to try things they normally wouldn’t. It was beautiful chaos as our Bigs and Littles started completing the challenges and getting messy in the process! At times there were some Bigs who were hesitant towards some of the challenges, and wondered why they were being put through these obstacles. At first, Ms. Brittany took this as a sign that the Match Party wasn’t achieving its intended purpose of bringing Littles and Bigs together. But in reflecting on this, she soon saw it as a valuable teaching moment for everyone.
“I had to let myself sit with the realization that I did nothing but let them know ‘Hey you got a goal. The goal is to find this person that you’ve been looking for since you joined this organization, how are you going to get to it?’ The same thing is going to come when we begin to tackle service projects. This is the goal this day, this time, this place. How are you going to get to it?” Ms. Brittany recalled. “I’m giving them nothing but what life is going to throw at them. And I’m hoping that the mindset of this, even outside of YELLS, applies and they get it. So once I stepped back and really thought about the magic that was born at the Match Party, I thought it was great.”
As Bigs and Littles made their way across the finish line, it was heartwarming to see the excitement in the kids’ faces as they finally uncovered their mentoring matches! Many of the Bigs and Littles had developed strong friendships even before the Match Party, so to see their expectations of who they would be matched with realized was a special thing. The rest of the match party was just that: a party! Matches took fun pictures together and played different games to bond and get to know each other and celebrate their new mentoring relationships.
Every step along the Mentoring Program journey this year provided valuable moments that our mentoring kids can learn from in order to tackle their community projects. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted so much of the work that our mentoring kids were striving for in the past, so this upcoming year really feels like a pivotal moment for our youth as far as developing their mentoring bonds and achieving their service project goals. For some, the desire to succeed has been lit for a while now.
“There’s a fire that’s lit from returning Bigs from 2019. Returning Bigs are like, ‘we want to do this and we want it now!'” Ms. Brittany said. “We have a senior that’s been here since 2019 and she loves this program. She wants this for herself. She wants to know that she did this. She knows she has a group working with her, and they’ve always gotten these bits and pieces. We’ll talk about projects, and we’ll start working on them. But she knows all of this stuff, and she wants to bust this thing out so bad!”
This year, our Bigs and Littles are planning to organize two amazing community projects! The first is a single mothers event aimed at supporting single mothers in the community by connecting them with local resources, as well as building a network of mothers willing to support and uplift each other when needed! We are beyond proud of our Bigs for having the awareness and empathy to think of the mothers of our community in this way, and we are excited to see the impact that this event will have in Franklin Gateway.
The second event is the Franklin Fair! The Franklin Fair is an annual celebration of the local community that sees Franklin Gateway residents come together to eat culturally diverse dishes from local restaurants and play fun carnival games with family and neighbors! These community events are a thoughtful and honest reflection of the kids within our mentoring program, and we’re immensely proud of the work they’ve done so far, and also of the work yet to come. Currently, the Bigs are working on drafting proposal letters to connect with partners that can help provide all the resources and materials to make their events a success! For Ms. Brittany, to see all of this come to fruition would mean the world for her and the youth in this program.
“My goal this year, I really want the double cherry on top,” she says. “I want to put on the service projects, I want to see that happen. I want to see myself at the Franklin Fair with the flash mob that I’ve been hoping to do since 2019. Me sitting in a chair, sitting back eating a hot dog and having a slushy. I want to see them smile and be able to say ‘yeah, we did that y’all, period.’ I want to hear that type of fellowship be able to happen. But the same mission still continues is that I’m helping build strong, positive, knowing-how-to-protect-their-peace young people.”
“I want to see this program come out of my hands and fall into the hands of the teenagers. I want the Littles to feel like they really have a friend in these Bigs. And I feel like that’s happening. I just want us to keep having a good time. That’s what I really, really want. And if I know that the positive feedback is Tuesday’s their favorite day, as long as Tuesday continues to be their favorite day, I feel like I’m winning. I feel like the program is winning.”
At the end of the day, YELLS is nothing without the partnerships that support our mission. We are successful in serving our youth because we have incredible partners that help us facilitate our programs, provide invaluable resources, and who truly buy into the principles that we aim to instill in the children of Franklin Gateway. This month we would like to spotlight a valuable new partner that has been instrumental in consistently providing a space for the YELLS Mentoring Program to meet weekly, organize their community projects, and grow their mentoring relationships: The Radisson Hotel Atlanta-Marietta and their Director of Sales and Marketing, Richard Leon!
Before working at the Radisson, Richard crossed paths with YELLS once before, having been invited to volunteer with us by his good friend and YELLS Board Member, George O’Donnell. “It was just kind of spot projects here and there, like painting the interior of your building over there, again with a friend of mine who was on the board. And so he’s like, ‘Richard, come on, let’s do some painting!’” (Photo/Dito Montaña)
Earlier this fall and with a week to go until the Mentoring Program was set to begin, we were informed that our usual meeting space was no longer available to use. Throughout that week our staff scrambled to find a place in our community for the Mentoring Program kids to gather temporarily until more secure accommodations were made, and in this endeavor, our Executive Director, Laura Keefe, was put into contact with Richard Leon, the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Radisson Hotel just off Franklin Gateway, to see if he could help solve this urgent problem.
“Under new management, one of our primary goals was to establish ourselves as an anchor in the Franklin Gateway community to restore its reputation to be a great neighbor,” Richard said. “And I know this is a cliche, but it was kind of a win-win situation. Laura needed a place, I was looking toward having some type of involvement that helps the community, and that’s what this is.”
Richard Leon, a native New Yorker who came down to Georgia over 14 years ago with his family, has been working in the hotel business for almost 30 years, the majority of that time with Marriott International. Richard joined the Radisson in late August, three months after the hotel was purchased by Veteran Service USA, and was tasked with revitalizing the hotel’s reputation in the community. When Laura approached him with the idea of hosting the Mentoring Program at the Radisson, Richard was able to secure one of their conference rooms for YELLS to use, and what started as a temporary arrangement quickly became an established meeting place for the kids in that program! The initial agreement was until the end of the 2021 year, but The Radisson extended their offer until at least until the end of March!
“I see all the great work that YELLS is doing in the community. And you know, this is really not empty praise, YELLS does important work in the community with our youth,” Richard said. “Being in the hotel industry as I have been for so many years, it’s ingrained in me, it’s kind of in my culture, that if you’re not helping the customer, you’re supporting the people who are helping the customer. So if you’re not directly helping kids in the community in Franklin Gateway, then you should be supporting the people who are. So that’s something I’m pretty passionate about.”
Especially as we navigate our programs during the pandemic, it has been vitally important that our kids have a consistent place to grow their mentoring relationships, and The Radisson has hosted some pretty memorable moments so far for our Bigs and Littles! During the first few weeks of this year’s Mentoring Program, the Bigs helped Littles with their homework, they played games that challenged them to grow in their leadership, and together they brainstormed some truly thoughtful community projects that will teach them to be servant leaders for the Franklin Gateway community! Most notably, The Radisson hosted our Match Party, the big day where Bigs and Littles were matched together through a series of “Fear Factor” challenges scattered throughout the hotel, and since then it’s been so heartwarming to see these relationships growing every week! Our Bigs are learning to be leaders by guiding their Littles through life, and in turn our Littles can turn to their Bigs for support, advice, and motivation. Thanks to The Radisson, our Bigs and Littles are able to focus on building these mentoring relationships without the worry of figuring out where they are going to meet that week.
The Radisson has undergone several changes in ownership over the years, with Commonwealth Hospitality assuming management of the property in May of 2021. Richard said he has a vision of how he sees the Radisson cementing itself as a good neighbor on Franklin Gateway while increasing business for the hotel.
“Well, I see us growing by partnering with other businesses in the community. I have attended some of the Franklin Gateway Community Improvement District meetings and just partnered with them to offer our hotel as lodging options, meeting options, events options. Fill the hotel is my job, get the hotel busy, get foot traffic in here.” (Photo by Dito Montaña)
Anyone involved in YELLS who knows Richard can attest to the fact that he’s been up to bat for the Mentoring Program time and time again. His passion for hospitality as well as the Radisson’s ongoing generosity is evident every time our Bigs and Littles step into that space. We’re very grateful for how this unexpected partnership has blossomed into one of the most directly impactful resources for our Mentoring Program kids. As this partnership grows, Richard remains optimistic about the Radisson’s continued support of YELLS and its mission.
“We’re very proud of the partnership that we’ve shared with YELLS. It’s been a short relationship of only three months now, and we look forward to going into 2022 with that same effort, with that same relationship and just growing and strengthening it,” Richard said. “Because as I mentioned before, we feel as though YELLS is a very important part of the community for mentoring our youth. And I know this also sounds like a cliche, but the youth are the future of this area. And to help them now only helps all of us in the future.”
Thank you, Richard and The Radisson Hotel, for believing in our Franklin Gateway youth!
This month, we would like to highlight one of our incredible funders and partners who was instrumental in YELLS’ return to in-person programming in the summer of 2021. Assurant has been a great supporter of YELLS over the years, always mobilizing their team to give back to our youth, but they really stepped it up last year. In a time of great need and uncertainty for YELLS, this partner took it upon themselves to change our fortunes during a truly difficult time by donating a significant amount of funds to our organization for much-needed repairs. For this reason, we have dedicated this month’s Funder Spotlight to Assurant!
Rewind to August of 2020. YELLS had been closed since March due to the pandemic, with staff only in the space for short periods of time to organize supply drop-offs, food and grocery events, and other family resources while programming remained virtual. Unfortunately, high humidity levels and moisture led to a quick spread of mold that destroyed the carpet in our Afterschool Program space. This posed a serious threat to our operations; there was no way that we could welcome our students back into the building until we found a way to strip the carpet and repair our floors, all of which would cost a small fortune to our organization. We quickly had some amazing volunteers step up to remove the carpeting and address the mold. However, replacing the flooring proved to be much more difficult.
For months our Executive Director, Laura Keefe, strategized to raise funds for this unanticipated project so that we could be ready to open in-person as soon as health conditions allowed. But then in March of 2021, our partners at Assurant reached out to Laura wondering how they could get more involved with YELLS. Assurant has been a wonderful partner in the past and they really believe in the YELLS mission. So when Laura mentioned to them our struggles with finding the funds to repair our floors, immediately they began brainstorming ways that they could help us out in a big way.
“The kids weren’t back with you guys yet, so they were trying to plan for that. One of the things that she wanted was to be able to have the carpet in by then, and she was explaining how this was an unintended expense for the nonprofit,” said Jill Heibult of Assurant. “And so I was on the call and I was like, ‘well, we could do a fundraiser! I don’t know how it could work but, you know, we could do something like that and see what we could come up with.’ And so we put our brains together at Assurant and decided that we were going to do an event called Fund the Foot.”
YELLS and Assurant
Jill Heibult is the strategy chair for Assurant’s Employee Engagement Champion Team for the state of Georgia. Assurant has Engagement Champion Teams at various locations that are responsible for identifying volunteer opportunities for their employees to give back to the community, and Jill’s job is to coordinate these efforts by finding community partners to champion. Jill first heard about YELLS four years ago through an annual volunteer campaign that Assurant does in partnership with United Way, and this ultimately led to a strong relationship between Assurant and YELLS over the years.
“We do a volunteer activity each year during our United Way campaign to benefit one of their partners through United Way,” Jill said. “And we got a whole list of (organizations) and we looked through and were like ‘YELLS, this sounds awesome!’ It’s right around our neighborhood in Cobb County, and we loved the mission and the energy of it. We did our first activity, I think that was four years ago. And that was our first opportunity to work with YELLS.”
In the past, Assurant employees have assembled and donated hundreds of snack packs for our YELLS kids, each decorated with hand-drawn doodles and a personalized note. This was such a fun way for Assurant to get involved with YELLS, and our kids loved it! When Jill and her Assurant team proposed the idea for Fund the Foot, we knew that this was going to be a special moment for YELLS considering all the love they have shown us in the past, although admittedly nobody here really knew what to expect!
Fund the Foot
What followed next was incredible! By May of 2021, with only a few weeks before we were set to reopen our doors for summer camp, we managed to replace our floors at a cost to our organization. While it was by no means ideal, ultimately we had no choice but to fund the repairs before our students returned to YELLS.
Around the same time, our partners at Assurant reached out to us with the special announcement that their company-wide fundraising event, Fund the Foot, was in full swing. They told us that the Assurant Foundation, the charitable portion of Assurant Inc., was doing a 2-for-1 match on all employee donations to Fund the Foot, and on top of that they were gifting YELLS with a special grant specifically for our carpet repair!
This was amazing news! And yet, none of us really knew what to expect when Assurant invited the YELLS staff on a Zoom call to announce the amount raised. Needless to say, that call left us all floored! (pun partially intended)
“We thought it might be maybe $1,000 or $2,000, but they presented to us that they raised $12,000! Then, when the check arrived, it ended up being even higher – $16,300!” Laura said.
All in all, Assurant and the Assurant Foundation donated $16,300 to reimburse YELLS for the cost of installing a new carpet in our building! It is impossible to fully express how grateful we are for this donation, and it went a long way in improving the quality of our services for our families. Ms. Sherri, our Afterschool Program Coordinator, said it made a HUGE difference to the space itself and changed the mood of our building and staff.
“If it hadn’t happened along with being shut down, how would we still be able to run a program while still having our carpet redone? It was really transformative for the space and for us as we got back into the space. It was a big deal!”
And It Doesn’t Stop There!
In classic Assurant fashion, Fund the Foot wasn’t their only contribution to YELLS this year! This past October, Assurant and United Way of Greater Atlanta teamed up to assemble 50 STEAM kits and 50 Literacy kits for our YELLS kids to take home and keep up with their academic enrichment during the holiday breaks!
As we move forward into a new year, we are looking forward to more ways that YELLS and Assurant can come together to serve our youth and the Franklin Gateway community. Thank you again to Assurant and the Assurant Foundation for their continued support of the YELLS mission and our youth!
We have to brag on our incredible YELLS alumna, Raigon Wilson. She has been pouring into our Mentoring Program Bigs during this time of social distancing and making sure they develop the same skills she learned when she was a Big. As a Big, Raigon committed herself to shaping the life of her elementary school “Little,” and she has continued to mentor Analleli even after graduating.
Raigon is a natural servant leader, actively seeking ways to develop her own skills in order to give back to others. Wherever there is an opportunity for deep-reaching, authentic service, Raigon is sure to be found. Raigon uncovered her passion for promoting food security, health, and nutrition at an early age while working in our YELLS Community Garden. During her time as a Big, Raigon developed a toolkit of community leadership and project management skills as she launched community initiatives, managed our community garden, coordinated a health fair, and led cooking and health workshops for youth. This would later fuel her future studies and career focused on helping communities achieve equitable health outcomes.
Raigon has stayed busy since her time in YELLS, gaining a scholarship and earning a degree from Howard University in Nutritional Sciences and receiving a Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals fellowship. With her amazing heart and skillset that has only grown through all of her studies and experiences since graduating YELLS, we were so thrilled to have her rejoin us as a volunteer to invest in the next generation of Bigs. Listen to Raigon share how her time in YELLS shaped her as a leader:
After her fellowship in Germany was cut short due to COVID-19, Raigon reached out, looking for a way to give back and put her skills to use. Given the state of our nation, she was particularly interested in supporting our initiatives around equity and justice. Raigon has helped our youth process their feelings around racial injustice and led a Social Action Project Planning Workshop to help equip our youth with the skills to take action.
Our Bigs will be leading a “Dialogue Project” to share their perspectives and elevate voices to inspire awareness and spark change. They are in the process of producing a series of interviews and conversations that explore our country’s social unrest on a more personal level. Bigs hope to keep the dialogue going and encourage people to have tough conversations that help all individuals deal with and address inequities. Raigon drew from the skills she learned as a Big and all she’s learned since to design a virtual workshop that would help Bigs work through their project planning process and consider all the steps for success. Thanks to Raigon, they’ve set SMART Goals and have a solid plan to take their project from idea to implementation! Hear from Raigon why this project matters to her and why she’s chosen to continue to invest in YELLS as she grows in her career:
The Franklin Gateway community takes care of its neighbors! During this time, we were especially concerned that our families have the resources they need, and we sought out a way to bring food resources to Franklin Gateway. We’ve been blessed to forge a new partnership between Food Security for America and our Franklin Road Community Association (FRCA) to provide two weeks’ worth of groceries to families every other week. The mission of Food Security for America aligns with ours, and is rooted in community ownership – local residents power the program by volunteering to unload, sort, and distribute the food safely at each biweekly drive thru event. Our FRCA is made of true community champions who brought this new program to life. They have been committed to making sure Franklin Gateway families are fed during this challenging time, and have troubleshot and overcome hurdles to make it happen!
It’s been amazing to see the outpouring of resources Food Security for America brings to our community during each biweekly event. Each family receives an abundance of food, with overflowing baskets and boxes of meat, fruit, veggies, milk, dry goods, feminine products, and so much more! And our FRCA volunteers quickly get to work sorting and sharing it. They’ve weathered downpours, but always found a way to make sure families received food. We began this new program in our YELLS parking lot through socially-distanced drive-thru events, but have more recently connected the team to our partners down the street at Christ Harvesters Global Outreach Church, who host our YELLS Mentoring Program. This new location ensures Franklin Gateway community members can still benefit, but offers a new, indoor location large enough to allow social distancing while protecting from the rain. Families have already received more than 12,168 pounds of food and are so appreciative for this extra support. Thankfully, we have a caring community that rallies together and supports each other through the obstacles we face!
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.
Speed Networking with the Community Action Cafe
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.
Transforming Our Space
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!
Our daily volunteers are a very important part of the YELLS team. Volunteers are needed to help make sure that everything runs smoothly and our kiddos receive the individual guidance to help them learn and grow.
Dan Moore, affectionately referred to as Mr. Dan, came to YELLS last year as a retiree looking for a place to donate some of his time. He learned of YELLS through some neighbors who lived in the area. Mr. Dan jumped right into the hustle and bustle with all of our kids, and now he is a rock star of managing the homework room, joining us at least twice a week. It is clear that he genuinely cares about our students’ success, which we greatly appreciate! He takes the time to work one-on-one with each student during homework time. His commitment and quality time spent with each student is so valuable, and is exactly the type of dedication that we need to help our students be successful. When asked why he keeps coming back, he said that he really enjoys interacting with the kids and seeing the difference he is able to make in their academics. Our staff even occasionally consult with him to find out how students are doing with their assignments. He is able to share valuable insight because he is a regular that sees our students often and cares about helping them to be their best.
He’s handy, too! When Mr. Dan noticed that we needed a place to hang our students’ reading certificates, he brought the supplies and hung a new cork wall in our homework room. When he noticed that a wall needed to be repainted, he offered some extra paint he had laying around and came to touch up the wall in his spare time. When he noticed that a few of our ceiling tiles needed to be replaced, he generously offered some extras from his home and helped us to replace them.
Mr. Dan is so committed to the achievement of our youth that he’s even working to recruit more volunteers like him! He wants to see every student receive the one-on-one support and attention they deserve.
When asked to share a favorite interaction with a YELLS student, he shared these moments with us:
YELLS student to Mr. Dan: “You dress nice.” Mr. Dan: “Why thank you, why do you say that?” YELLS student: “Because of the little animals on your shirt.”
One night during dismissal, students were given pizza once their parents arrived to pick them up. One student asked Mr. Dan, “Is your mother coming to pick you up?”
Thank you, Mr. Dan, for your dedication to helping our YELLS students succeed!
Last school year was a very successful year for many of our students, but we’re especially proud of one of our graduates who, after struggling with many family issues, wasn’t sure she saw a path to graduation before she began at YELLS. Ansleigh recalls learning about YELLS from her two brothers who had been attending for a year before she decided to visit YELLS for the first time. She was nervous at first, telling us, “I just didn’t feel like it was something for me. Then I went one day, and I’ve loved it ever since.” She has made such progress both in her self-esteem, her community support network, and her academics since she first started at YELLS.
“I never knew I would get the opportunity to receive a diploma on May 25, 2019. My four years of high school were very rough. Family issues and friendship issues got in the way of my academics. I struggled my freshman year and that messed up all my four years. I saw a huge difference in the grades I received in the beginning from the ones I received in the end. YELLS has helped contribute in an amazing way. My self-esteem was extremely low until I came to YELLS. The activities helped me come out of my shell and do things that I would have never thought I would do. The tutors have helped me accomplish all of my goals. I am so grateful for all of the staff, new students and new friends I made. For my senior year of high school, I got the opportunity to go to Marietta City Schools Performance Learning Center. If I did not go to PLC, I would have to do another year and wouldn’t have graduated on time. After receiving my diploma, I feel like I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. I am so grateful for the opportunities I was given in all my four years.” – Ansleigh Phillips, Community Action Cafe Graduate
Now a YELLS graduate, Ansleigh comes back to volunteer and pass on what she received at YELLS, and our community has an educated and invested citizen who will continue to give back. She recently joined us as an assistant on the annual servant-leadership retreat to Camp Blue Ridge. It was amazing seeing just how much maturity and confidence she has gained. She was able to assist in creating workshops and lessons for our current high school students. The current students look up to her so much as a role model, and she takes it upon herself to support and encourage them to follow in her footsteps. She has a unique connection with the students because she has been in their place before. She is able to motivate and uplift them, and it has been amazing to watch the relationship between Ansleigh and our current students grow from peer to mentor.
Ansleigh recently shared, “Being a YELLS graduate makes me feel like I have accomplished something. It makes me feel like I did something right. I’ve loved YELLS since the first time I stepped foot in the building. YELLS is my second home.”
We’re so proud of you Ansleigh and all you have accomplished! Keep up the great work!
We want to give a big shout out to three of our partners, Advanced MD, Assurant Solutions, and United Way! Each of them played a role in making a very special afternoon for our students!
Advanced MD, a Global Payments company, first came to YELLS in 2017, and we are so happy that they keep coming back! The company organizes days of service in order to give back to the community throughout the year, and we are so fortunate that they continue to choose YELLS as a partner. This time they brought a group of 10 members to help to maintain an organized and uplifting space for our students to focus and learn in. We also had a few Global Payments team members stay to spend time with our K-5th grade students. Our kids enjoyed having new energetic volunteers to play games with and to help them with their homework.
We have been teaching our K-5th graders about the 5 Love Languages and helping them to discern which love languages pertain to them. For many of our students “Words of Affirmation” really help to encourage them to be all that they can be. The Global Payments team wrote an uplifting note for each one of our 55 K-5th graders. These special notes were taped to their cubbies as an exciting surprise when they got off of the school bus. The kids were so excited that someone would take the time to write a special message just for them! We were then able to discuss the power of uplifting others and words of affirmation with our youth. They will remember these messages for a long time to come.
Thank you, Advanced MD, for choosing to make an impact in
the lives of YELLS youth!
To sweeten the pot even more, YELLS was thrilled to be a part of a snack pack making event hosted by Assurant and United Way. Thank you Assurant for assembling and donating 200 snack packs filled with a juice box, granola bar, gold fish, fruit snacks, and a fruit cup – each bag decorated with a hand-drawn doodle or message. What a treat! Advanced MD volunteers helped us to distribute the snack packs into each student’s cubby as a special surprise, along with their notes.
Partnership is all about teamwork. Thank you to each of these partners for playing a part in making a very special afternoon for our students! Teamwork makes the dream work!
Because we learn about the community [from community members] we are more knowledgeable about the needs of the community.
Tori
When we first came to America we were timid. When we came to YELLS my mentality changed… YELLS has helped me to keep my family together and organized. Taking care of kids by YELLS is wonderful!
Patience Ehehom, YELLS advocate since 2012
At [the Community Action Café] we get people who sacrifice so much for us, and that motivates us to help those around us.
Tori
The kids don’t always talk about their day at school, but they always want to talk about their day at YELLS.
Tosha Freeman, Afterschool Program Parent
YELLS has been a medium where I can actively change a life, and actively manipulate my own life to be what I want it to be.
Ana, YELLS Big
It makes you feel good to give back.
Devin
The kids out here [on Franklin Road] are all looking for a better future, and we help them find that better future.
Ashami, Hospitality and Service Team Member
YELLS allowed me to see that all people have something to offer.
Imani, YELLS Big
I take everything I learned from YELLS everywhere I go. Your vision is truly being lived out through students like me.
