YFMS has over 20 years’ experience as Family engagement practitioners, group facilitators,

How We Work

Engaged families prove their capacity for self-advocacy as they invest in the development of life skills and enrich their social networks. Families overcome generational barriers to educational advancement as they are empowered as stakeholders and owners of their families’ and child’s life and educational trajectory. We make the tools for navigating systems accessible to families. We facilitate connections that dispel fear and frustration. We empower families with information and share tools to promote their continued engagement in their children’s life and education. Historically we have worked with community-based organizations, schools or school systems desiring to more deeply engage either parents of middle school and high school aged youth or the students themselves. Our family-based approaches acknowledge that neither children nor parents operate in isolation and the keys to success lie in facilitating meaningful attachment and experiences of empowerment for whole families.

Who We Serve

We are personally and professionally staked in these challenges. Grounded in group and peer mentoring practices, we focus on BIPOC, families of color in general and African Americans in particular, as the inequities facing us are persistent; social networks have become increasingly fragmented; and the investments necessary to meet the challenges have not been sizable or sustained.

Why We Do This

• Only 59% of African American Males graduate from High School nationwide

• Children with parents who have learned educational involvement skills from the program are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school.

• Research shows that youth engagement programming improves students' educational outcomes, school attendance, and social and emotional learning.