By Jeff Griffith | Chief Operating Officer
WE DID IT AND IT IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!
WE MET OUR GLOBALGIVING GOAL OF $80,000!
The Youth Connection (TYC) wants to thank every one of our donors who helped connect our youth and their families to brighter futures this year! Your support has allowed us to make sure that summertime in the D means paid summer internships, youth training, and fantastic summer recreational trips for our students. We are not done yet. Our goal has increased to $100,000 so please spread the word about the great work we are doing because of our GlobalGiving community.
TYC currently has over 180 youth working at PAID summer internships working with the City of Detroit Police Explorers, at urban farms, Tech Town businesses, Henry Ford Health System, and at Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design. We even have 18 youth here at TYC helping us by learning and promoting youth substance use prevention activities in the city. Atwater Bistro, Heiman Recreation Center, Chandler Park Conservancy, and several partners on Belle Isle also have our youth helping out for the summer and gaining valuable job experience.
Ten youth from TYC also recently completed extensive training in Environmental Remediation and earned certifications in Construction, Weatherization, and Health and Safety training which all helps to increase their skills and make their job searches as adults much easier!
TYC participates in these summer job initiatives through Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation’s Year Round Youth Program, Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, and The Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Summer Youth Employment Program because there’s huge value in teaching youth a solid work ethic, the satisfaction of receiving a paycheck, and learning job skills that will help them when they are adults. These internships also help our students learn responsibility and how to apply for and keep a job by doing great work!
In addition to their summer jobs, youth in our programs have also gotten the chance to experience international conferences, summer activities that can best be described as “Pure Michigan,” and a chance to give back to their community here in Detroit and also at State Parks up north.
Two weeks ago, five youth from TYC got the opportunity to attend the CADCA Mid-Year Training Institute in Chicago to learn about advanced substance use prevention activities they can apply here in Detroit to help their peers and community stay drug free. The training was attended by over 2,000 people from around the world and our youth had the benefit of learning about the best ways to prevent underage drinking and vaping while having fun with hundreds of other young people from all over the United States and other countries. As a bonus, our youth had the chance to meet with CADCA leadership and share with these national prevention leaders about the challenges they are facing in their schools and neighborhoods and which ways would be best to reach their fellow peers with prevention messaging. Our students did an excellent job helping these leaders understand what’s really going on and the best way to keep our communities safe and drug free. We are so proud of their contributions to the conference and are excited to see them put their learning into action here in Detroit the rest of the summer and into the next school year.
In addition to the conference, other youth in our MDNR program also got the chance to experience “Pure Michigan” this summer to expose them to outdoor activities that are far from the every day. Youth recently went on trips to go fishing at a trout farm, go kayaking and learn axe throwing at River Raising National Battlefield Park, and take a camping trip to Wilderness State Park up north to help work on some projects and have fun in the great outdoors! Youth in this program are also getting ready to receive their first check from TYC for the hours they put in working at outdoor jobs starting in the second week in July!
Finally, thanks to our GlobalGiving community, we are able to provide needed glasses to youth and families participating in our mobile vision project with the Detroit Housing Commission!
While summer is a super busy time for all of us here at TYC, we wanted to take a minute and say, “Thank you!” to our partners, donors, families, and everybody who makes these summer experiences for our students possible. We promise to keep fighting hard to provide quality summer activities for youth and want you to know we couldn’t do it without you!
Our staff, Board of Directors, volunteers, and interns are so proud of the work that our youth are doing in our programs this summer. Every day we get the chance to see the effect it is having in shaping their futures, enriching their lives, and showing them that anything is possible for their futures. We hope you can picture just what an impact it has on our students to receive their first paycheck, catch their first fish, and go camping for the first time.
Thank you for allowing our youth to have opportunities to experience this summer and for the chance to attend and impact people at international conferences! Your support means the world to our youth and to our agency!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
