Shaquerra+Rouse

Shaquerra Rouse BTMM February 2, 2012 Reflection #2

YES (youth empowerment services) Philly Groups Mission& Activities: YES Philly (formerly known as Youth Empowerment Services) was established in June 1999 to develop opportunities for the many youth who drop out of Philadelphia Schools. For the past decade, YES Philly has designed and implemented an intensive youth development model for young adults, created innovative programs and curricula, and advocated for more and better targeted resources for high school dropouts. In their first years, YES Philly worked with the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Youth Network to establish the Youth Opportunity Centers. They also supported the start of Mastery Charter School, and created the Twilight School Professional Development Initiative, which helped School District teachers develop innovative instructional strategies to engage out-of-school youth. In 2002 YES Philly took the lead in getting public attention for the issue of high school dropouts by crafting the Blueprint for Out of School Youth. They also secured local funding for their core program, which includes GED and literacy skill development combined with counseling and educational enrichment activities, and transitioned from the Youth Opportunity Initiative. From 2004 to 2008 YES Philly offered the Digital Media Training Program (DMT), an apprenticeship model that provided advanced media arts training with an emphasis on video production skills. In 2008, with the change in Federal Workforce Investment Act priorities to youth with low literacy levels in 2008, they discontinued DMT, and added specially designed literacy classes to our program. In 2009 we were able to further enrich our model, with curriculum development resources, and a GED to College program serving 25 youth. This program (which they call G2C) supports students through the process of passing the GED tests and enrolling in credit-bearing college courses.

Response: I will be getting the chance to work first hand with the students of YES Philly this semester and I’m kind of excited. First thing first I would like to have a chance to ask each and every one of the students what made them decide to come back to school and pursue a GED and higher education after you’ve already dropped out of school? I also want to explore the reasoning behind them dropping out of school in the first place. Was it too hard? Did they just think school wasn’t for them? How did coming back to school change their lives? Next I want to explore the minds of the teachers and founders what purposed them to take action against kids dropping out of school? Why would they go out of their way to help kids who obviously didn’t want to be helped? Not saying that the kids didn’t want to be help or taught just saying that it was a reason behind them giving up and deciding not to finish out high school when they had the opportunity. It’s crazy because I try to put myself in other peoples shoes and analyze from their side but with this situation I can’t because I am a college student and I have a high school diploma and I couldn’t imagine myself not finishing high school and then going to college