Helping Empower Youth
A nonprofit organization aimed at providing minority youth leadership development, mentoring, and academic support through mental health initiatives and youth entrepreneurship training seeks to renovate a house to serve as its headquarters.
Why It Matters
Helping Empower Youth (HEY!) has been serving minority youth in Atlanta since 2011 but never had a formal space for its headquarters until early this year, when a developer offered a vacant house to the group. Through the renovation of the home, this project will give young black male teens an opportunity to learn skills and trades through the renovation and ultimately have a safe space for programming on the Westside of Atlanta. Many of the young men come from homes that aren’t always safe and to have a programming space that looks and feels like home makes a huge difference in young men trying to make more positive decisions in their lives and for their futures.
The Impact
“Our organization started as a group of friends just wanting to do good,” wrote project nominator KaCey Venning, HEY! Executive Director. “We work primarily with black male youth in some of Atlanta’s most under-resourced areas. We realized we needed more space. We got hold of a house, but it needed a lot of work. How can we at least make it safe and an inviting environment? It was such a win for us. We did grassroots fundraising to get started. We will go from serving 25 young people to over 600. We’ll be able to make a huge mark on the west side of Atlanta with this space.”
We will go from serving 25 young people to over 600. We’ll be able to make a huge mark on the west side of Atlanta with this space.
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