From left: Kwain Bryant from Goodwill, Azizi Coleman from Piedmont Health Services and Sickle Agency, and Shantiqua Neely from A Child’s Place.

Feb. 20, 2018

Four leaders of area programs serving youth spoke about their programs today. Residents from infancy into adulthood are involved. All of the programs’ plans for growth appear to hinge on increasing the participation of volunteers.

To take one example from Goodwill, is there any other way to grow a program from its current 70 participants so that it can meet the full Charlotte-Mecklenburg need, estimated at 1,000 participants? If there is, there was no mention of it by Forum participants or any of the presenters.

One noteworthy event: Two of the presenters, who had heard of each other but had not directly collaborated on behalf of their shared client base, realized during the presentations that they should be working together.

Those presenting Tuesday:

– Kwain Bryant, Youth Services Manager for Career Leadership Academy for Youth (CLAY) program, Goodwill;

– Azizi Coleman, program director, Piedmont Health Services and Sickle Cell Agency. A packet of materials is here;

– Shantiqua Neely, executive director, A Child’s Place for kids experiencing homelessness.

– Karen Gipson, the Y’s director of community partnerships and volunteers.

In the video below, the presentation begins at minute 2:51. The Q&A begins at minute 31:10.