1. What is the history of YES! Atlanta?
A small group of committed individuals met during the summer of 1988 and created Atlanta Youth at Risk. The Rising Star program was launched in spring of 1990 after nearly two years of organizing and fund-raising. Later that year, the group changed its name to YES!Atlanta (for Youth Experiencing Success) because it more accurately reflected their mission. The first Rising Star class, in 1990, consisted of thirty-five teens averaging fifteen years old. Since then, Rising Star programs II through XI have positively impacted the lives of over 300 young people.
2. How does Rising Star and YES!Atlanta differ from other organizations?
Rising Star is not a "handout" or a "quick fix". It provides program participants with tools for taking charge of their own lives – and then supports them in doing so for a full year. The continual coaching and support of both participants and volunteers is based on these principles:
POSSIBILITY: Despite personal circumstances, individuals have choices about how to act, and these choices can open the way to a future different from what was always believed possible;
RESPONSIBILITY: It's today’s choices and actions that creates our tomorrow;
COMMITMENT: Individuals can alter their lives by taking committed action;
SUPPORT: Real power comes from giving to others and asking for help from others;
FORGIVENESS: Letting go of the anger, bitterness, and hurt from the past promotes healing, and develops compassion for others.
During YES!Atlanta's programs, participants learn in a "do-as-we-do" atmosphere – learning from examples and not lectures. Participants receive extended coaching and support – an in depth approach to building self esteem and enriching the possibilities of our lives – within a community-based, grass-roots, volunteer-intensive framework.
The programs of YES!Atlanta, because of their intensity and duration, affect a basic change in the personality and attitudes of the participants. The youth become more intentional about their lives, they get along better with parents and other authority figures, do better in school and on the job, and see possibilities for themselves beyond what they may have imagined based upon their environment and circumstances. Graduates of the Rising Star Program have a greatly-increased probability of living fulfilled, productive lives while contributing to the well-being of others within their communities.
3. How are participants enrolled in Rising Star?
During the recruitment process, teenagers and parents/guardians are carefully and thoroughly briefed on the possibilities the program holds for them and the nature of the commitment they must make. They are extensively interviewed and parents’ consent is obtained. Youth wanting to participate must request to do so, then demonstrate their intention by attending meetings and completing other requirements. All youth receive a free physical examination as part of the enrollment process. The purely voluntary nature of this commitment is part of the reason for Rising Star’s outstanding rate of success.
4. Does Rising Star cost participants anything?
No. Each youth is provided a full scholarship.
5. What educational elements does the program entail?
The year-long program has two main elements: a five-Day Intensive Course and a year-long FollowThrough Program. During the Intensive, participants work to improve their self-awareness, confidence and communication skills through classroom sessions, group activities and challenging physical exercises, which prepares them for the mentoring relationship to follow. For many of these kids, the Intensive Course will provide their first taste of support, of trust, of success.
The FollowThrough Program enables the youth to turn life possibilities into reality. Each teenager has a Committed Partner – a trained adult volunteer who is committed to caring for the youth and guiding them in the fulfillment of personal projects they select in areas such as family relations, education, employment and substance abuse. This relationship is the core of a strong personalized support structure that teaches kids how to live a new way in their old environment.
Youth who sign up receive individualized tutoring by trained volunteers at the Learning Center, where reading and math skills receive special attention. Participants learn and practice a technique for handling mistakes, experience peer support, and receive leadership training. Their improved self-image helps extinguish unproductive and self-defeating behavior that previously placed them at risk.
The volunteers of Rising Star are trained not to impose their values upon the youth. Rather, they guide them in goal-setting, then provide support so the teenagers achieve these goals. After the first year, additional activities are planned to keep the teens involved, to enrich their experience of the world and to make them aware of their heritage. These ongoing activities are very important, since the youth are continually faced by, and must be supported in resisting, the detrimental influences of their environment.
6. How are Committed Partners selected?
Committed Partners are recruited from all parts of the community and represent all ages and backgrounds. The only prerequisites are the desire to make a difference in the life of another, and the willingness to make and keep a commitment to participate fully in the program for one year. Committed Partners promise to contact their youth once a week in person and twice by telephone and to attend the monthly Committed Partner Support Meeting (typically on Friday night) and, next day the Saturday Support Session with their youth. Most Committed Partners see their youth more frequently.
Committed Partner candidates fill out an extensive application that provides detailed insight into their personal history, which is followed by a background check. Committed Partners agree in writing to adhere to a prescribed code of conduct. These standards are designed to ensure the well-being of participants and volunteers alike.
Committed Partners are trained to fulfill their responsibilities during an intense three-day weekend workshop. During these sessions, volunteers learn that their main responsibility is to form the "wall" around each youth’s commitment to self. Participants also learn what it takes to build a successful relationship with a young person of, usually, a very different social background and circumstances.
Committed Partners are matched with the youth based on variety of personality factors. Cross-cultural, cross-gender, and cross-racial pairing is quite common. In regular monthly meetings and informal sessions, Committed Partners receive ongoing coaching to enhance their ability to support their youth. Staff maintains close contact with the young people and their parents to ensure that their relationship with the Commitment Partner will be as productive as possible.
7. Does the Rising Star program work?
To date, participants’ parents, teachers, relatives, and friends have provided considerable anecdotal evidence of the changes in the young people – generally, they are easier to get along with, are more able to make and keep commitments, do better in school and have much improved relationships with those around them. Several youth who have participated in the Rising Star Program are presently in college, and one is now a member of the YES!Board of Directors.
The former Chief Justice of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, Glenda Hatchett (now a television celebrity), reported that, in her experience, youth who participate in Rising Star are 70 percent less likely to reappear in her courtroom.
Margie Smith, former Tenant Association President of Techwood Homes, joined our Board of Directors after she had seen first-hand the impact of Rising Star on youth in her neighborhood. Her son was a participant in Rising Star II.
In 1992, then-President George Bush honored YES! Atlanta by naming it the 1,003rd national "Point of Light" for its achievements in working with youth.
YES!Atlanta is currently working to provide an objective, professional assessment of the impact of the Rising Star Program on the young participants as well as the volunteers.
8. What is YES! Atlanta ’s annual operating budget?
YES!Atlanta’s current operating budget is slightly more than $300,000, which includes funding the Rising Star five-Day Youth Intensive Course and year long Follow-Through Program. The Board of Directors and staff continually review all expenditures in order to adjust the program to reflect the realities of fundraising. And all efforts are made to make the program more economical and efficient without compromising the program’s quality.
9. How does YES! Atlanta raise operating funds?
YES! Atlanta receives financial support through individual, corporate and foundation contributions, as well as special fundraising events. And in-kind donations of goods and services are also a means by which ongoing activities and special programs are produced. YES! Atlanta is a non-profit corporation under IRS 501(c)3 so contributions are tax deductible as provided by law.
The organization’s principal fund-raising event is The YES!Atlanta/Outback Steakhouse Celebrity Golf Classic, hosted by John Schuerholz. Significant financial funding also comes from a special entertainment program produced annually by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
10. How does YES! Atlanta allocate the funds raised?
The majority of YES!Atlanta’s program budget goes to funding Rising Star, which is a complex and extensive program, requiring a large group of dedicated individuals. Detailed and intensive training and coaching of staff and volunteers is essential, and is provided by youth-service professionals and others well-versed in similar programs. The following major groups receive training: Committed Partners, Facilitators, Youth Enrollment Team, and On-Site Volunteer Team.
Skilled professionals are employed to design and/or lead and manage events and workshops leading up to the Intensive Course, and design and conduct the five-Day itself, which involves close to 150 participants, volunteers and staff. These professionals also support the Rising Star Program and coach Committed Partners to ensure they are successful during the FollowThrough Year.
The balance of the money is for production of the Intensive, (food, facility rental, communications, equipment, transportation, insurance and the like), the FollowThrough Program, and the Learning Center , as well as local expenses such as the small staff, office rent and supplies, telephone, printing, utilities, supplies, postage, etc. Some of these costs may be offset by in-kind contributions from business and individuals.
It takes this kind of long-term program to make a successful intervention into young life. Yet, compared to the social costs of not doing anything, it is a bargain.
