After 16 years of honing our place-based model in the Franklin Gateway community, we are thrilled to share that YELLS expanded our powerful youth leadership approach to a new neighborhood! In 2024, YELLS launched the Fair Oaks YELLS Youth Program for Kindergarten to fifth grade youth within Fair Oaks Elementary School. It is the first daily after-school program to ever be offered within this high-needs school, and it provides the same academic and whole-child supports as our Franklin Gateway YELLS Afterschool Program. The daily Fair Oaks YELLS Youth Program offers homework help, targeted tutoring, group reading lessons, leadership workshops, recreation, Choice Club enrichment, and service-learning opportunities to youth each day after school, along with parent engagement, education, and community building. What began as a pilot with just 9 youth in Fair Oaks Elementary School in the spring of 2024 has now blossomed into a thriving program of over 40 young leaders in the 2024-2025 school year, building academic excellence and a deep sense of ownership in their community.
Similar to Franklin Gateway, the beautifully diverse Fair Oaks neighborhood is full of hard-working, engaged, and resilient families who face daunting barriers. This predominately Latino (51%) and Black (20%) community was identified based on high needs and lack of external investment and resources that has exacerbated the challenges facing families. YELLS joined a multi-agency initiative led by Ser Familia and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta to work collaboratively to embrace Fair Oaks with deep, wrap-around strategies for long-term, community-driven transformation. We have been honored to serve alongside this powerful coalition of partners to share our expertise in place-based initiatives and serve as the lead agency for youth development and education services.
It’s been a joy to watch our Fair Oaks YELLS youth step up as powerful community leaders, and their impact is already shining. Many joined us shy and unsure of themselves, but they now speak proudly, introduce themselves with confidence, and carry themselves with purpose. They know how to mobilize their neighbors, write proposal letters, plan events, bring ideas to fruition, and connect people. After leading their own community needs assessment and discovering new ways to build community from passionate partners, our youth pitched their own projects and voted for which they would lead together. They took their skills into the community, creating handmade paper flowers to share with neighbors, leading a family carnival, and organizing a free lemonade stand that spread joy and connection, exceeding their goal by delivering 102 smiles. Their self-esteem has soared as they’ve seen their ideas come to life and their voices truly matter. In just a short time we have sparked a movement of community-driven success and achievements, centered on neighbors growing their own skills to invest in themselves, their families, and their Fair Oaks neighborhood.
We feel so blessed to serve alongside the incredible community of Fair Oaks and witness how fully families participate in our multigenerational program. Our parents are deeply invested and continuously share how grateful they are for the support they receive both for their children and for themselves. Fair Oaks families have SHOWN UP for our parent workshops and family events, including a Conflict Resolution Family Game Night, Positivity Jars Event and Affirmation Workshop, “Building Our Gingerbread Community” Event, Speed Networking with Youth, our End-of-Year Celebration, and all of the youth’s projects. They are connecting with each other and building a support network while learning tools to help their family thrive.
Collaboration has been key to the success of the Fair Oaks YELLS Youth Program and the youth and community-led movement it has sparked. We are grateful to Ser Familia and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta for believing in YELLS and inviting us to empower the Fair Oaks community together. We feel humbled, as well, by how welcoming Fair Oaks Elementary School, their principal, and their teachers and staff have been as they opened their doors to our program and our team. The local mobile home communities where our youth live also welcomed us graciously for community pop-up events and service projects led by our young leaders. Partnerships with other nonprofits like Soccer in the Streets, American Youth Soccer Organization, Atlanta Youth Tennis & Education Foundation, re:imagine/ATL, Freedom Youth Yoga, and The Gift of Music Foundation offered incredible exposure opportunities for youth through our ongoing “Choice Clubs,” including soccer, basketball, tennis, robotics, tricultural music, yoga, Zumba, dance, and filmmaking. Our YELLS team brought these groups together for powerful impact. The heart and leadership of our staff has been truly remarkable as they persisted through the challenges of spearheading a new initiative and creatively designed programming that is changing lives and building a community from within.
Our first expansion has been quite the journey, and YELLS has stretched through growing pains as we’ve clarified our vision, strengthened our model, and built a new team to customize it in a brand new neighborhood. It’s been beautiful to watch the YELLS vision come to life and resonate in powerful and potent ways as the Fair Oaks community adds their unique strengths, voices, and dreams. Together, we’re co-creating a space where youth feel empowered, families feel supported, and neighbors come together to build a stronger, more connected community. While the journey has brought its share of challenges, it has also revealed the deep potential for impact when a model is not just replicated, but reshaped and made meaningful by the people it serves. We’re excited to keep growing alongside Fair Oaks, amplifying local leadership, and writing this next chapter of YELLS with the community, not just for it.
If you’d like to be a part of this story and join us in uplifting youth and community, please reach out to Laura@YELLSinc.org. We’re stronger together, and we welcome volunteers and partners to help us grow our impact!
