We are thrilled to announce that we now have our very own Little Free Library here on campus at YELLS! Little Free Libraries are community tools that operate on the “Take One, Leave One” principle. With this in mind, it encourages students to take a book and leave a book behind! The library inspires a love for reading and achievement in literacy, it also supports a core value we emphasize at YELLS, Uplifting Others. As a routine part of our curriculum, YELLS scholars of all ages are encouraged to empower and uplift their fellow classmates and community members. Increased literacy starts by encouraging our little ones to read and getting them excited about reading in any way we can! By increasing the literacy rates of the youth in our community, we can raise test scores and continue making strides toward empowering our youth. The little library will be used as a resource for free books for our students as well as members of the Franklin Gateway community.
We’re so excited to add another fun and beneficial resource to our YELLS campus that helps us to continue to establish our position as a true community hub. This new addition is not only open to our YELLS families and students, but is a great opportunity for other families in the Franklin Gateway community to get acquainted with YELLS, and for us to connect with them as well! It’s amazing how something so small can have such a large potential impact and help us to get to know and support our neighbors even more.
This not only encourages a love for reading and achievement in literacy, but supports another core value we teach at YELLS, Uplifting Others. As a routine part of our curriculum, YELLS scholars of all ages are encouraged to empower and uplift their fellow classmates and community members. They are taught to work alongside other youth to grow and achieve success together. The concept behind the Little Free Library is a beautiful opportunity to teach this value further, given that our YELLS youth can leave their own favorite books behind for others to enjoy. It teaches them that there is no action too small when it comes to welcoming and offering support to their community. It’s also just a fun way to explore new reading opportunities they may not have had otherwise!
Mentoring 2023 “Bigs” with Mentoring Coordinator: Erica Smith and Executive Director: Laura Keefe
The 2023-2024 Mentoring Retreat was a huge success! Each year, to welcome our “Bigs” into the Mentoring program, we host a retreat that emphasizes and teaches the importance of the YELLS values. “Bigs” are 9th-12th grade students who will be paired with one elementary schooler that they will mentor and assist with homework. They focused on building a sense of teamwork and bonding within our YELLS family, understanding the essential skills and various roles of an effective mentor/Big, and sharpening their relationship-building skills.
Upon arrival, each Big received a bag containing the tools necessary for their journey during the 24-hour retreat. Before entering our facility, each Big wrote down something they would be letting go of as they entered the retreat. Once they entered the main space, there were tons of games for them to engage with and each Big was encouraged to interact with at least one person they didn’t know.
To conclude the night, each member of the YELLS Family gathered for a candle ceremony. During our candle ceremony, each Big along with every staff member shared how they would let their light shine in our program during this upcoming school year. Our Executive Director started the ceremony by lighting the initial candle and passing it around to each member of the circle. The ceremony significantly impacted the Bigs because each member of the circle was reassured that they could rely on their peers for support in the areas where they still have room to grow. The ceremony also set the tone for collaboration, teamwork, and dependability throughout the school year.
On Saturday, in preparation for the school year, the Bigs did a role-playing session where they acted out different scenarios that they could encounter with their Little during their sessions. This activity taught the students how to respond and prepare for some of the things they could possibly experience with their little. At the end of the activity, each student was tasked with sharing a helpful tip for dealing with specific situations with their peers.
Saturday Afternoon, the Bigs were tasked with going out into the Franklin Gateway community and completing a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt included things such as “introduce yourself to a member of the community, take a picture with a community member or in front of an apartment complex, and share information about the YELLS Mentoring Program with a member of the community. The Bigs also created “Little Jars of Sunshine” that included tiny inspirational messages and they were able to share those with the community as well.
Our Mentoring Retreat was a huge success! We’re so excited for to see our Bigs flourish as Mentors in our program and we can’t wait to see the fun activities they have planned.
YELLS has enjoyed abundant holiday blessings this year thanks to the generosity, hard work, and community spirit of the Marietta Country Club. For the past nine years, the Marietta Country Club has been giving back to local organizations through their ThanksGIVING Golf Classic, and YELLS is so honored to be the recipient of this year’s event. Through the hard work of the event committee led by Chair Stacy Haubenschild and incredible sponsors like the Kiwanis Club of Marietta, Henssler Financial, MSI Benefits Group, Giles and Sherra Bowman Family Fund, Brown, Dutton, and Crider Law Firm, Roof U.S. Commercial and Residential, Binkley Electric, Croy Engineering, and so many others, the event was an incredible success.
The Marietta Country Club ThanksGIVING Golf Classic mobilized the goodwill and giving spirit of the Cobb County community to raise $150,000 for YELLS!
Stacy Haubenschild is President of the Board of Directors at Marietta Country Club and says that the tournament is one of her favorite pieces of her role because of how well it brings the broader Marietta community together.
“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.”
This contribution is a game changer for YELLS that comes at a time when community needs are at their highest, and we are stretched to continue to uplift and empower our youth and their Franklin Gateway neighborhood while meeting the many needs of families. This significant investment of flexible funding will allow us to forecast future spending to build the capacity of our organization to continue empowering youth. It will be put to good use to make a true difference for our community and ensure our important work is sustained and the next generation of change makers thrives.
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!
Beyond the amazing investment in our work, the tournament day itself was both a blast and a wonderful chance for our teens to put their work into practice. Our YELLS Mentoring Program Bigs and Community Action Café teens enjoyed spending the day at the beautiful Marietta Country Club and networking with so many kind-hearted community leaders. It was so much fun to cheer on the teams and celebrate their commitment to our shared community.
We are so grateful for the many volunteers that invested their time, creativity, and hard work to make this day possible. YELLS is honored to have been chosen and blessed to build a new partnership the Marietta Country Club and its wonderful members who have shown a deep dedication to supporting our local community. 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 with the amazing people we have met already! We would also like to thank Cobb Community Foundation, who introduced YELLS to the Marietta Country Club, for their continued support and advocacy for YELLS! The Cobb County community is in good hands.
YELLS is a place for community empowerment and action, and our Community Conversations event provided an intentional forum for youth, parents, neighbors, business leaders, City and County representatives, and stakeholders to unite to uplift our shared community. As our special project in celebration of the National PAL (Police Athletic and Activities League) Day of Service, we brought these voices together and offered a seat at the table to share what matters to them within their community. It was powerful for youth and parents to raise their voices and for community leaders and local partners to hear what residents feel are the greatest needs of their family and Franklin Gateway community right now.
Our incredible YELLS Mentoring Program Bigs and Community Action Café Teens were the hosts for the day, welcoming guests and encouraging conversations at each of the table rotations. Groups of youth, parents, and community leaders and stakeholders rotated to engage in meaningful discussions led by local experts. The following topics were chosen based on issues that community members had expressed as important to them:
Access to Parks & Green Space on Franklin Gateway (Rich Deckman, City of Marietta Parks & Recreation Deputy Director)
Affordable Housing/Rent (Kelsey Thompson, City of Marietta Community Development Manager and Monica DeLancy, We Thrive on Riverside Renters Association Executive Director)
FRCA & the Power of an Active & Connected Community (Antoinette Reed, FRCA President)
Embracing Neighbors of Various Cultures & Languages (Lorena Beltran, YELLS Board Member)
How to Engage Your Elected Officials & Have a Voice in Your Community (Leroy Tre’ Hutchins, Cobb County Schools Board Member)
Franklin Fair Community Block Party: What You’d Like to See & What You’ll Bring (Kevin Keefe, YELLS Board Member)
What Else? What are the Other Needs of Franklin Gateway Families Right Now? (Melanie Kagan, The Center for Family Resources CEO)
Design Your Ideal Franklin Gateway (Caroline Whaley, Gateway Marietta CID Executive Director)
Police & Community Relationships (Officer Chris Cannon, Marietta Police Department)
The day was filled with passionate conversations, new perspectives, deeper understanding, and inspiration for each of us to do our part in shaping our Franklin Gateway neighborhood together. It served as the perfect catalyst as our youth and parents begin to dream about how they want to use their skills and passions to shape their Franklin Gateway neighborhood. This productive day was just the first step in mobilizing community to come together to discuss the tough issues and develop ideas on how we can activate the strengths of our community to make positive change for all. It will take hard work and collaboration, but that’s why we’re here, and we’re looking forward to continuing to mobilize our community to take action on the issues that matter to them.
We are so grateful for our wonderful partners at Assurant who have gone above and beyond in providing our teens with incredible opportunities to explore their professional passions and practice their networking skills, as well as experiences that they will remember for a long time!
Assurant Career Day
In the past couple of months, Assurant has truly outdone themselves in supporting our YELLS youth through their own volunteer initiatives! A few amazing Assurant volunteers really have adopted YELLS, and they have brought to life some incredible ideas to make a lasting impact for our youth. This fall Assurant organized and hosted a Career Day specifically for YELLS teens where they were invited to chat with employees from various departments and learn more about what it’s like working at Assurant! They truly are a company that invests in their employees and empowers them to give back. Jill Heibult, Rosa Ortiz, and Tonya Lowmon have blown us away by their commitment to our organization and their passion that mobilizes so many others to support our youth as well. This was a highly beneficial networking opportunity for our YELLS teens and Assurant did their part in making this custom-designed event fun and meaningful for our youth!
“They opened up their doors and allowed our students to be able to have a world class experience by going into a Fortune 500 global company – they are global, they are worldwide,” said Monica Freeman, our Director of Programs. “They gave our students an in depth look into what Assurant is and how Assurant helps people, even down to T Mobile, their phones and their insurance.
Our students learned that once they graduate high school at 18 they can walk in and get a job at Assurant,” Monica continued. “Assurant hires students right out of high school, you don’t even need a degree because they train you on-site. So a lot of our students were very excited about that opportunity.”
Assurant COO, Keith Meier, shows his support for YELLS and his commitment to employee engagement in our shared community.
The level of support and investment that Assurant showed our teens at this event cannot be overstated. Their employees were genuinely interested in getting to know our teens and helping them explore the career paths that interest them the most! Even beyond acquiring a job after high school, those shared conversations and connections empower our youth and give them the confidence to pursue their own paths in life. And if that wasn’t enough, Assurant also had Chick-fil-A sponsor the event by providing lunch for our teens! By the end of the day, our teens walked away full of ideas for their future, and also bags full of Assurant swag!
Assurant and United Way Campaign Kickoff
A month after their career day, Assurant held a Jamboree supporting United Way of Greater Atlanta’s annual campaign, and YELLS was invited to share our story of how we have served the youth of Franklin Gateway. Assurant and United Way of Greater Atlanta’s annual campaign kickoff event was located at the Ponce City Market rooftop in Midtown Atlanta, and we saw it as an excellent opportunity to send our Community Action Cafe teens to represent our organization!
“Our students were the representatives of YELLS at the event, and this was an amazing experience for our youth,” Ms. Monica said. “None of our youth had ever been on top of Ponce City Market. A lot had never even seen the skyline of Atlanta. So the experience of that alone really made a difference within their lives.”
Our teens spoke from the heart about their experiences growing up on Franklin Gateway and finding their place at YELLS, and it was clear that they resonated with many in the audience. When they got off the stage, they got to further practice their networking skills by connecting with professionals from around the nonprofit world with the sun setting on the Atlanta skyline behind them.
The cherry on top of Assurant’s continued support of YELLS came the very next day when Assurant employees assembled literacy snack packs for our youth! Last year, as part of a volunteer engagement initiative for their employees, Assurant provided our youth with awesome STEAM kits that they could work on during the holiday break, and this year Assurant focused on promoting literacy and healthy snacks. All in all they made 100 bags for our youth to take home!
In sum, we could not be more grateful for Assurant’s consistent and genuine investment into our youth. Our mission has always been to uplift our teens and equip them with the skills to make meaningful change in their community, and Assurant has undoubtedly aided us in this endeavor.
Thank you Jill, Rosa, Tonya, and all the amazing folks at Assurant!
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.”
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!
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 thewater 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 theFranklin 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.
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!
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!
YELLS allowed me to see that all people have something to offer.
Imani, YELLS Big
It’s all positive energy in here!
Devin, YELLS Graduate
I take everything I learned from YELLS everywhere I go. Your vision is truly being lived out through students like me.
Jonah, YELLS Big
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
Because we learn about the community [from community members] we are more knowledgeable about the needs of the community.
Tori
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
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
The way people see you changes when you help them address a problem in the community.
Ashami
At [the Community Action Café] we get people who sacrifice so much for us, and that motivates us to help those around us.
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!
