YES RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE YAWKEY FOUNDATION
Youth Enrichment Services (YES) recently received a $65,000 grant from the Yawkey Foundation. These funds will support YES’s repeat engagement and high impact programming. In addition, the Yawkey Foundation will be a Platinum Peak sponsor for the 10th Annual Black Diamond Gala on Thursday, April 9.
Youth in repeat engagement programs develop resilience, self-confidence, and courage through attending multiple activity days. Youth are able to improve their skills and excel at their sport while gaining confidence and building stronger relationships with their peers and coaches. Repeat engagement programs include Track & Field, YETTI (Youth Excel Through Tailored Instruction) Ski and Snowboard, Cross-Country Ski, Outdoor Adventure Week-Ling Experiences, and School Partnerships.
YES’s high-impact programming includes YES Academy, in which teens build leadership skills, explore career pathways, and prepare for college through a unique curriculum that embeds learning through outdoor activities. Meeting weekly throughout the school year, teens in the program participate in workshops, group trainings, and one-on-one sessions with YES staff. They also participate in outdoor activities – Downhill Skiing, Cross Country Skiing, and Outdoor Adventure – and serve as assistant instructors and positive role models to younger youth in YES’s sports-based programs.
About the Yawkey Foundation: The Yawkey Foundations trace their origins back over eight decades to the philanthropic commitments of Tom and Jean Yawkey. With great concern for the forgotten and underserved, Tom and Jean Yawkey took careful steps to ensure that their legacy would live on through the work of the Yawkey Foundations. They were particularly interested in supporting organizations that encouraged educational opportunities, improved health care, enhanced human service programs, provided youth and amateur athletic opportunities, celebrated arts and cultural endeavors, and valued conservation efforts.