Youth Programs-YES Club
The YES Club is an after-school enrichment program for indigent children. YES stands for Youth Educational Services and the intent of the program is to build children’s skills in literacy, math, and community leadership as well as to develop environmental awareness. Last year almost 1,000 poor children attended the YES Clubs which are offered in 8 communities and colonias, which are rural unincorporated subdivisions that may lack basic water and sewer systems, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing.
The YES Club is a youth led activity. Adolescents (Teen Tutors) who are enrolled in the ChildFund International program organize and implement YES Clubs in their local community. In communities where the parents have limited English literacy (75%) and little formal education (6th grade) we have found that these youth bring important skills that are needed by younger children: they have a mastery of the English language; they are better educated than the parents of most of the children; they know how the school system works; and they know their community. The Teen Tutors benefit through employment, participating in a training program that provides job skills, and the opportunity to participate in leadership activities with other Teen Tutors from throughout the Rio Grande Valley. AVANCE-RGV usually has 18 tutors at any one time with two assigned to work at each site in their community.
The YES Clubs meet twice a week after-school for a two-hour session during the school year. In addition to completing homework assignments, young children participate in enrichment activities. To improve poor writing skills, children complete a journal each week where they write about an interesting topic and the sheets of paper are made into a bound journal at the end of the year. A mobile Dream Corners library of books donated by CCF sponsors is available for children to read. Environmental activities include many hands on projects like building a bird house or planter, learning about bats, turtles. They have been participating in a wetlands education program called Marshmallows. The YES Club’s also receive benefits from the collaboration with other entities such as the Texas A&M Extension Service, the International Museum in McAllen (IMAS)-PBS Nova Project and the Texas Parks and Wildlife World Birding Centers.
Eduardo Flores – 13 I loved to go to the program because we played sports and we got snacks. The only thing I would do before was watch T.V. and after the program, I started to realize there are more things to do in life.
Cruz Enriquez – 9 I wouldn’t do anything before the program started, all I did was stay home. But now I love the program and what I like the best is that I play with the children.