Tag: youth

Youth Spotlight – Abigail and Joshua Saho!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Partner Spotlight – The Radisson Hotel and Richard Leon

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!

“Be a Voice for Marietta Youth” 2019 Campaign

YELLS invites our supporters to invest in the youth and families who are investing in our shared community.

YELLS relies on the generosity of individuals and partners like you.  This year, Cobb County Commissioners made a recommendation that nonprofits no longer be supported by the County and eliminated a key source of revenue for YELLS, the Cobb County Nonprofit Grant.  This will have a major impact on YELLS, as the County has historically provided up to $65,000 of funding annually to support our operations.

We need donors like you to help YELLS raise $30,000 to fill the gap while we work to replace this pivotal funding.  Your support will fund essential operating costs to help YELLS continue to empower the youth of Marietta.

While this presents an urgent need, it also offers an opportunity for our supporters to rally together to uplift our work and invest in the youth and families who are leading as change-makers in our shared community.

It takes us all working together to make a true difference!  We invite you to be a part of this difference and raise your voice for Marietta youth through an individual contribution or a family or corporate sponsorship.