YES Empowerment
All program participants are required to participate in YES Empowerment when attending GED classes. YES Empowerment exposes program participants to positive cultural and community activities. This is essential to nurturing more empowered and motivated GED graduates, who are equipped with the skills and experiences to positively impact our communities, our state, our nation, and the world.
The program components include:
Character Development and Life Skills: This component of Empowerment is centered around classes and activities to enhance a program participant’s understanding of who they are and who they want to become. When building a bridge between goals and achievement, there are resources, skills planning, and most importantly confidence, needed to promote success. Our signature activities include: Goal Positioning System (GPS), Self-Inventory Checklist, Communicating to Solutions and self-expression through Collage of Self.
YES, I FEEL SO GOOD! is the cornerstone of the YES Empowerment health initiative aimed to improve the mental, physical, and social health of program participants and their families. YES, I FEEL SO GOOD! empowers program participants to understand the importance of healthy relationships, physical exercise, diet and nutrition, health screening, preventative care and positive stress relieving activities. YES, has quarterly events where program participants are able to engage with health professionals and each other to expand their knowledge and experience of healthy and active lifestyles.
Community Impact: Strong communities are built by strong individuals. As we empower our program participants to map out their individual goals, we also have them identify issues, successes, strategies and community stakeholders to improve their communities. Each month, GED students are required to complete one Community Impact project they have identified to address a need in their locale. Community Impact includes park beautification, voter registration drives and other service-learning activities.
Cultural Enrichment: This component of Empowerment is driven by the theme, ” Positive exposure saves lives.” All program participants are offered classroom and external activities that are designed to be informative and/or expressive cultural enrichment. Signature activities include our Poetry Slam, YES Debate, YES Student Government Association (YES SGA), YES Jeopardy, YES College Campus Day, Music and Art Appreciation and Museum Tours.
