Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency (AWDA) successfully hosted the second annual Mayor's Youth Program, where former Atlanta Public Schools (APS) seniors shared their experiences in the program.

Over 145 students attended the reunion, along with community partners who contributed summer internships and cash donations to the classes of 2005 and 2006.

Mayor Shirley Franklin who designed The Mayor's Youth Program to assist Atlanta public school seniors develop a plan for after college, spoke to students about the significance of furthering their education. "When we began planning this program in 2004 we had modest goals thinking we might be able to help 25 to 50 students go to college. We ended up with 411 students in 2005 and 696 in 2006. Then we thought we might be able to get 75 internships for the summer. We ended up with 300 internship placements," said Mayor Franklin.

Several students participated in the Youth Program's Holiday Reunion program, introducing honored guests and sharing their personal stories. One student Justin Pollard, a member of the 2006 Youth Program class who is currently studying Biology at Clayton State University said "The Mayor's Youth Program changed my life. If it hadn't been for this program, I would not be in college right now." Justin received financial assistance to pay for his housing and a laptop computer. Justin is looking forward to becoming a Cardiologist.

The program also included the acknowledgment of 7 students who have completed the Youth Empowerment Services (YES) program and will begin Lincoln University in January. Program contributors including Coordinator Terry Martin, Fulton County Juvenile Court Judge Wanda Dallas, and Keene Walker from Dare 2 Care Technologies, LLC, spoke about the achievements that these 7 students made in re-directing their lives towards a positive future. The YES Program is a collaboration between the City Solicitor's Office, the Municipal Court of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency (AWDA). Participants are youth and juvenile offenders who live in the City's Weed and Seed communities and have been mandated by the City courts to join the program as part of their sentence. YES has provided GED training, job readiness skills, SAT preparation, tuition assistance and counseling services to over than 330 Atlanta youth.

The Mayor's Youth Program would like to thank Toyota Motor Sales and Jerome Miller, Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion at Toyota, for sponsoring the 2006 Mayor's Youth Program Holiday Reunion. "It was a great success due to the support of Toyota and the hard work of the Next Step and AWDA staff. The students had a wonderful time," said Deborah Lum, executive director of AWDA.

Mayor Shirley Franklin and Deborah Lum, AWDA
Executive Director at the Mayor's Youth Program Holiday Reunion

Mayor Shirley Franklin, Jerome Miller, VP Toyota
and Youth Program Students

Mayor Shirley Franklin and YES students

Mayor Shirley Franklin and Jerome Miller,
VP, Diversity & Inclusion, Toyota