Mission
MentorOur mentorship program pairs each youth with a respected adult from the community, to provide a positive influence and example. The mentor's role is to model prosocial values and behavior for the youth in the context of personal relationship.
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ServeWe promote service as a pillar of our organization to instill in the youth a value of community engagement and a helpful attitude.
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Teach & TrainOur program seeks to prepare youth for their individual futures by teaching healthy living habits and training them in both practical and technical skills.
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History
In September 2010 in Clarksville, TN, the Youth Employment Service (YES) was incorporated as a 501c3 Nonprofit Organization, and in 2019 became the Youth Engagement Service (YES), keeping the same acronym. We were meeting at The Well, 220 Union St., downtown Clarksville and the Clarksville Montgomery County Library through 2015 and then started meeting at 2650 Trenton Rd, Church of Christ at Trenton Crossing, where we are currently meeting.
The YES was started as a result of my experiences growing up in Memphis, TN in a single parent household, and the special mentors that came into my life to give me a job, encouragement, support and hope. My mentors taught me how to work with my hands and to pursue a purpose in life. Most of them were in the social services field, teachers, coaches, counselors and ministers and men and women of faith. Following their examples, I too became a servant and wanted to give back to others. The motto of the YES is to Mentor, Serve, Teach and Train (MST2), arising from my association with positive mentors. I saw my mentors in action: serving, teaching and training, providing an example for me to emulate. In the next few paragraphs, I will share a brief history of the YES in six areas of interests: students, clients, equipment, services, special events, and volunteers.
Students
As of today, we have had over 100 students to participate in community service projects over the years. In the summer of 2010, the YES started serving in the Clarksville community when my son, Kelvin, 12 years old at the time and I volunteered to mow the grass of our neighbors on our street. Most of our neighbors were military families, like me, and one or both spouses were deployed that summer, so Kelvin and I started assisting families with maintaining their lawns. Over the first four years of the program, as we increased in clients, Kelvin started recruiting his friends to volunteer to help our neighbors and others in the community. He recruited students from church, his baseball team, from the Youth Center on Ft Campbell, students he played basketball with, and his homeschool friends. He has good people skills and made working fun for his friends.
In 2014, students from the inner city joined our program per the request from a guidance counselor at Clarksville High. I had gone to the high school to retrieve the cell phone of one of our students. The guidance counselor asked me about my relationship with the student. I said I was his mentor and shared some info about the YES. She mentioned another student that she felt could benefit from our program. He joined us and later he invited his nephew, and his nephew invited his friends, and as a result, our students’ volunteers increased.
In 2019, we started receiving referrals from the Office of Youth Services and Juvenile Probation for students to complete mandatory community service hours. In 2020, we partnered with The AAU Basketball team, the Tennessee Platinum, to encourage student athletes to give back to their community.
Students from diverse backgrounds and experience have been actively engaged in helping to make their community better by serving those in need - senior citizens, the homeless, the poor, their neighbors, and friends - and performing various tasks such as washing windows, picking up trash, cleaning out garages, serving food, visiting shut ins in assisted living homes, mowing grass and working with other nonprofit organizations.
Clients
Our original seven families were on our streets. We went from mowing 7 yards to 12 yards in 2010. Most of our clients were from word of mouth, requesting primary assistance with household chores such as cleaning gutters, removing and trimming bushes and hauling off broken items. After an article was published in the Leaf Chronicle, we received more requests for services. Our clients have included senior citizens, families with small children, middle class and upper class and the poor, nursing homes and veteran homes, and other nonprofit organizations. We had clients in Clarksville, Montgomery County and Kentucky. The total number of people and organizations served by the YES has been over 150, including a few regular clients whom we serve every year with free or donation-based lawn services.
Services
We provide many services to the community and to the students volunteering in the YES. Each summer, we provide Free Lawn Services to seniors and the poor who were unable to pay for various reasons. Other services have included helping people to move, loading up and unloading household goods, assisting with building wheelchair ramps, painting ramps, picking up trash on the streets, hauling trash and furniture off to the landfill, repairing small engine equipment, and working with other nonprofits as requested. Many of the services provided were free to those that qualified and others were requested to make a donation.
For students, there were numerous services provided to them, such as job experience, team building, free meals, community service opportunities, building relationships, life skill classes, tutoring and more. Students were afforded some technical training on small engine repair and construction. In 2019, we incorporated Life Skill Training (LST) in order to meet the issues and challenges of some of the youth being referred from the Juvenile Court. Some of LST included Goal Setting, Making Good Choices, Finances, Job Training, Communication, Physical Fitness, Nutrition and Team Building. The experience and training were vital to enriching young people and transferring them onto job and college applications. In 2019, High School students received certificates from the Mayor Office for their service to the community. All students received certificates from the YES.
Equipment
We started off with one push mower, a weed-eater and the family van. A few months later, one of the members of the church donated two lawn mowers: an expensive self-propelled push-mower and an older push mower. As the word got out, more people started to donate old lawn equipment. The students would work on them to get them to run if they could. The ones that were able to be repaired were put into the program or given away to families who needed them. We have donated over 16 lawn mowers. Mr. Joe Gaines, our volunteer technical specialist, trained me along with some of the students to repair small engines. After I learned, I shared my knowledge and experience with the new students that came into the program. Preventive maintenance, services and troubleshooting were performed on equipment donated to the program. The ones we couldn’t repair due to time restraints or difficulty were donated to small engine repair shops to repair or for serviceable parts.
Special Events
We have hosted several special events since being established, highlighting students' involvement and commitment to their community, and the YES being a positive youth service program. Below are some of the special events:
2011-1st Student Volunteer Recognition at Church of Christ Student Center
April 26, 2014-1st Father and Son Breakfast-“Changing Ties”, at The Well, Guest Speaker, Pastor Jimmy Terry, Sr. Theme by Chris Brandon-Board Member.
Jul 21, 2014 1st Article about the YES published in the Leaf Chronicle
Jun 18, 2016, - 2nd Father and Son Breakfast, at Trenton Crossing Church of Christ, Guest Speaker-Joe Shakeenab
April 28, 2018 -1st Father and Son Luncheon at Total Obstacle Fitness Center-Guest Speaker-Terrance Duncan Sr.
Jan 19, 2018, 1st 3 on 3 Martin Luther King Basketball Tournaments at Church of Christ at Trenton Crossing
Nov 16, 2019- 1st Students and Volunteers Recognition-Certificates from the Office of City Mayor Clarksville.
Volunteers/Sponsors/Partners
All the works in the YES are done by volunteers: students, board members and their families, friends and parents. Like most nonprofit organizations, volunteers are a precious commodity, and are truly appreciated for their time and effort in making the program run smoothly.
One volunteer in particular that really helped to sustain our program is Mr. Joe Gaines. He partnered with us in 2011, teaching small engine repair and fixing our equipment when it became too difficult or above our level. I consider Mr. Gaines a technical expert who can fix just about anything. He partnered with us to teach small engine repair, but has taught me more than just that; a lot about people, gardening, and business. Mr. Gaines was a mentor to me back then and still is. He is a very generous, nice and knowledgeable mentor and friend.
A very special sponsor that has been with us since incorporation is the Church of Christ at Trenton Crossing. From the beginning, members have donated, assisted in the startup and provided many opportunities for us to serve. When the church was named Madison Street Church of Christ, the Elders allowed us to use the church gym, the Student Center across from Austin Peay State University and The Well, Outreach Center for our board meetings. The church was our first paying customer, allowing us to cut its grass at the church on Madison Street, The Well on Union Street, and the Student Center on College Street - all three in close proximity. After the move, the church continues to support the YES by allowing us to use the gym, classroom and fellowship hall for various activities opening up to the community. The church has been a blessing to us and to the community by allowing us to use their facilities that provide students a safe and positive environment to play, work, learn and grow.
There is an old African proverb that says “It takes a village to raise a child." That means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.
The YES was started as a result of my experiences growing up in Memphis, TN in a single parent household, and the special mentors that came into my life to give me a job, encouragement, support and hope. My mentors taught me how to work with my hands and to pursue a purpose in life. Most of them were in the social services field, teachers, coaches, counselors and ministers and men and women of faith. Following their examples, I too became a servant and wanted to give back to others. The motto of the YES is to Mentor, Serve, Teach and Train (MST2), arising from my association with positive mentors. I saw my mentors in action: serving, teaching and training, providing an example for me to emulate. In the next few paragraphs, I will share a brief history of the YES in six areas of interests: students, clients, equipment, services, special events, and volunteers.
Students
As of today, we have had over 100 students to participate in community service projects over the years. In the summer of 2010, the YES started serving in the Clarksville community when my son, Kelvin, 12 years old at the time and I volunteered to mow the grass of our neighbors on our street. Most of our neighbors were military families, like me, and one or both spouses were deployed that summer, so Kelvin and I started assisting families with maintaining their lawns. Over the first four years of the program, as we increased in clients, Kelvin started recruiting his friends to volunteer to help our neighbors and others in the community. He recruited students from church, his baseball team, from the Youth Center on Ft Campbell, students he played basketball with, and his homeschool friends. He has good people skills and made working fun for his friends.
In 2014, students from the inner city joined our program per the request from a guidance counselor at Clarksville High. I had gone to the high school to retrieve the cell phone of one of our students. The guidance counselor asked me about my relationship with the student. I said I was his mentor and shared some info about the YES. She mentioned another student that she felt could benefit from our program. He joined us and later he invited his nephew, and his nephew invited his friends, and as a result, our students’ volunteers increased.
In 2019, we started receiving referrals from the Office of Youth Services and Juvenile Probation for students to complete mandatory community service hours. In 2020, we partnered with The AAU Basketball team, the Tennessee Platinum, to encourage student athletes to give back to their community.
Students from diverse backgrounds and experience have been actively engaged in helping to make their community better by serving those in need - senior citizens, the homeless, the poor, their neighbors, and friends - and performing various tasks such as washing windows, picking up trash, cleaning out garages, serving food, visiting shut ins in assisted living homes, mowing grass and working with other nonprofit organizations.
Clients
Our original seven families were on our streets. We went from mowing 7 yards to 12 yards in 2010. Most of our clients were from word of mouth, requesting primary assistance with household chores such as cleaning gutters, removing and trimming bushes and hauling off broken items. After an article was published in the Leaf Chronicle, we received more requests for services. Our clients have included senior citizens, families with small children, middle class and upper class and the poor, nursing homes and veteran homes, and other nonprofit organizations. We had clients in Clarksville, Montgomery County and Kentucky. The total number of people and organizations served by the YES has been over 150, including a few regular clients whom we serve every year with free or donation-based lawn services.
Services
We provide many services to the community and to the students volunteering in the YES. Each summer, we provide Free Lawn Services to seniors and the poor who were unable to pay for various reasons. Other services have included helping people to move, loading up and unloading household goods, assisting with building wheelchair ramps, painting ramps, picking up trash on the streets, hauling trash and furniture off to the landfill, repairing small engine equipment, and working with other nonprofits as requested. Many of the services provided were free to those that qualified and others were requested to make a donation.
For students, there were numerous services provided to them, such as job experience, team building, free meals, community service opportunities, building relationships, life skill classes, tutoring and more. Students were afforded some technical training on small engine repair and construction. In 2019, we incorporated Life Skill Training (LST) in order to meet the issues and challenges of some of the youth being referred from the Juvenile Court. Some of LST included Goal Setting, Making Good Choices, Finances, Job Training, Communication, Physical Fitness, Nutrition and Team Building. The experience and training were vital to enriching young people and transferring them onto job and college applications. In 2019, High School students received certificates from the Mayor Office for their service to the community. All students received certificates from the YES.
Equipment
We started off with one push mower, a weed-eater and the family van. A few months later, one of the members of the church donated two lawn mowers: an expensive self-propelled push-mower and an older push mower. As the word got out, more people started to donate old lawn equipment. The students would work on them to get them to run if they could. The ones that were able to be repaired were put into the program or given away to families who needed them. We have donated over 16 lawn mowers. Mr. Joe Gaines, our volunteer technical specialist, trained me along with some of the students to repair small engines. After I learned, I shared my knowledge and experience with the new students that came into the program. Preventive maintenance, services and troubleshooting were performed on equipment donated to the program. The ones we couldn’t repair due to time restraints or difficulty were donated to small engine repair shops to repair or for serviceable parts.
Special Events
We have hosted several special events since being established, highlighting students' involvement and commitment to their community, and the YES being a positive youth service program. Below are some of the special events:
2011-1st Student Volunteer Recognition at Church of Christ Student Center
April 26, 2014-1st Father and Son Breakfast-“Changing Ties”, at The Well, Guest Speaker, Pastor Jimmy Terry, Sr. Theme by Chris Brandon-Board Member.
Jul 21, 2014 1st Article about the YES published in the Leaf Chronicle
Jun 18, 2016, - 2nd Father and Son Breakfast, at Trenton Crossing Church of Christ, Guest Speaker-Joe Shakeenab
April 28, 2018 -1st Father and Son Luncheon at Total Obstacle Fitness Center-Guest Speaker-Terrance Duncan Sr.
Jan 19, 2018, 1st 3 on 3 Martin Luther King Basketball Tournaments at Church of Christ at Trenton Crossing
Nov 16, 2019- 1st Students and Volunteers Recognition-Certificates from the Office of City Mayor Clarksville.
Volunteers/Sponsors/Partners
All the works in the YES are done by volunteers: students, board members and their families, friends and parents. Like most nonprofit organizations, volunteers are a precious commodity, and are truly appreciated for their time and effort in making the program run smoothly.
One volunteer in particular that really helped to sustain our program is Mr. Joe Gaines. He partnered with us in 2011, teaching small engine repair and fixing our equipment when it became too difficult or above our level. I consider Mr. Gaines a technical expert who can fix just about anything. He partnered with us to teach small engine repair, but has taught me more than just that; a lot about people, gardening, and business. Mr. Gaines was a mentor to me back then and still is. He is a very generous, nice and knowledgeable mentor and friend.
A very special sponsor that has been with us since incorporation is the Church of Christ at Trenton Crossing. From the beginning, members have donated, assisted in the startup and provided many opportunities for us to serve. When the church was named Madison Street Church of Christ, the Elders allowed us to use the church gym, the Student Center across from Austin Peay State University and The Well, Outreach Center for our board meetings. The church was our first paying customer, allowing us to cut its grass at the church on Madison Street, The Well on Union Street, and the Student Center on College Street - all three in close proximity. After the move, the church continues to support the YES by allowing us to use the gym, classroom and fellowship hall for various activities opening up to the community. The church has been a blessing to us and to the community by allowing us to use their facilities that provide students a safe and positive environment to play, work, learn and grow.
There is an old African proverb that says “It takes a village to raise a child." That means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.