Our Story
Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”
(Nelson Mandela – social justice activist, political prisoner for 27 years and former President of South Africa)
Our Story
Mission
To develop and implement alternative education solutions, effective programs, and practical action strategies for disconnected youth and their families.
Youth Enhancement Services, Inc., (YES) was founded in 1990 to assess and address empowerment through education, self-esteem building, cultural relevancy, and workforce readiness of out-of-school, disconnected youth, ages 16 to 24. Our main goal is to permanently disrupt generational poverty through programs and services that offer sustainable self-sufficiency.
Since YES started our journey, we have worked with over 5,000 youth and counting in the Atlanta Metropolitan area as well as Augusta, Georgia. Over the past thirty years in 2020, many of our GED graduates have embraced our guidance and reached higher for post-secondary opportunities at local community and technical colleges, universities, workforce trainings and job placements.
Vision
Establish Youth Enhancement Services as an innovative, effective and sustainable empowerment service provider breaking cycles of generational poverty for out-of-school, disconnected youth and their families through pure community partnerships.
Core Values
- YES empowers youth through self-awareness, educational attainment, workforce readiness skills, living-wage opportunities, and cultural enrichment.
- YES encourages staff and students to excel in a collaborative workplace that promotes creativity & strengthens agency’s culture.
- YES believes that responsibility and accountability are the key drivers for positive, permanent, and measurable results.
- YES is committed to the ongoing evaluation of our work to improve organizational efficiency and program efficacy.
Goals
- Upend generational childhood poverty through education and living-wage training opportunities designed to decrease negative behaviors, and disrupt the cradle-school-to prison pipeline of many disconnected youth.
- Enhance and expand our comprehensive service model to best serve more children, youth, and their families.
- Establish partnerships with other non-profits, churches, businesses and governmental agencies to promote and ensure successful outcomes.
- Provide outcome data for all interventions.
- Identify continuous and sustainable funding streams.
