Orange Mound Collaborative

Yo! Memphis Kicks Off in Orange Mound

Oct 09, 2000

"We serve with pride and humility," says Gwendolyn M. Williams. She fondly remembers the Melrose School motto and faculty members such as Roberta Ratcliff, Elaine Smith and Floyd Campbell who guided students.

She continues to pass the Melrose motto on to youth at the Yo! Memphis Orange Mound Campus where she is a Workforce Development Specialist. The Melrose graduate is also a state certified social worker working with youth participating in a new initiative in Memphis.

The initiative called Yo! Memphis, the Youth Opportunity Movement, kicked off in Orange Mound on Monday, September 4, 2000 after a caravan ride through the South and North areas of the Enterprise Community. The City of Memphis was awarded one of 36 national Youth Opportunity grants from the United States Department of Labor this year.

With the grant, the city will work with youth ages 14-21 in the Enterprise Community to make sure that youth stay in school or earn a GED, learn job skills and continue their education at a college, trade or technical school.

The program aims to prepare youth for long-term employment, develop leadership skills and involve them in community service and recreational activities. Youth who have dropped out of school are a major focus of the program.

The Orange Mound Yo! Memphis campus in managed by Kendra Stanback. Having attended Orange Mound Day Nursery and Dunbar Elementary School, she's no stranger to the neighborhood, and still has family here.

"Although the focus is youth, we are also reaching out to the family to strengthen it," said Stanback. She sees that through working with the youth, they also reach the parents.

Tori Black, Yo!Memphis Workforce Development Specialist, is working with youth on job readiness and preparation for college. She says, "Yo! aims to set the stage, to ask them what they want to do."

The program is going a step further by helping youth develop resumes and conducting mock job interviews. In the future, Yo! Memphis plans to also take youth to college campuses in the area.

"I want to try to better my life, to find something that I will be able to do 20 years from now," Edward Joyner, 20. Joyner is one of approximately fifty Yo! Memphis participants in Orange Mound. He graduated from Melrose High School in 1998 and now wants to go to college.

"There are a lot of roads that I can take. I just need to apply myself." Kendra Stanback agrees, "I want them to know that they have choices. We'll help them set and reach, no, exceed those goals."

The Yo! Memphis staff encourages all youth ages 14-21 who live or attend school in Orange Mound to participate in the program. No proof of income is required. For more information about Yo! Memphis call 327-1448.