YES 4 Health, Inc Brings Back the Blog!..With lots and lots to share!

We ended 2007 and started 2008 with a bang! Let's start with highlights from 2007:

• We gracioiusly received funding form the Dekalb County Board of Health to bring back our famous diabetes play entitles "Driv-Thru Justice;"


• We held auditions and started a new chapter for Y.E.S. in the summer if 2007 at our former home at the Horizons School - We remain ever grateful to Horizons for offering us space for so many years;
• We were honored by the Sevenanda Community Food Co-Op as their Community Change Partner for the month of September. This honor brought with it generous donations from patrons of Sevananda and our friends - donations matched by the store;


• We performed for the opening of the Clarkston Community Center (CCC) in September - which is now our new home for rehearsals and performances and have a gerat story to show for it in the CrossRoads News (a Dekalb Newspaper) on December 27th;
• We performed for a birthday celebration and wedding reception for our Board Chair and her husband - who in turn donated all monetary gifts to Y.E.S;


• Launched rehearsals in our new home at the CCC;


• We had a great presentations and coaching from experts on Diabetes, physical fitness, nutrition , acting and more.

What's on the horizon for 2008:

• January 27th - Invitation for Y.E.S. to receive free dance coaching from the Pop City Studios of Decatur GA to explore various dance forms! Someone said the studio is owned and operated by none other than Usher's Mom!


• January 31st - Tentative performance date at a local High School (and recruitment opportunity).


• February 16th - Tentative date for a Talent Show open to local teens!


• March 2nd -Silent Auction Fund Raiser and Diabetes Performance


• March 29th- Y.E.S. Middle Schoolers to participate in the Live Healthy Dekalb Youth Summit on Advocacy (Giving youth a voice!) sponsored by the Dekalb County Board of Health and several other local organizations.


• Additional fundraisers to be announced as Y.E.S. prepares to travel with Youth Leadersihp for Global Health for performance and health study tour to the beautiful island of Anguila, West Indies in July 2008!

Dates and locations for all events will be posted here in our BLOG - please stay tuned!

• On-going environmental fundraiser entitled Phoneraiser - please send your used cell phones and ink cartridges to Y.E.S to assist us in keeping the environment clean and raising funds to travel this summer. Contact 678-438-4996 for more information for donations sites.
• We thank all of our friends and supporters - both old and new and invite you to continue the journey with us as we move forward educating peer leaders who are spreading messages of health and health promotion to other teens through drama, dance and voice!

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group
Habarigani, Happy Kwanzaa & Happy New Year from Y.E.S. 4 Health Inc. Starting the year off right, we will be holding a meeting of the Board of Directors on January 6th at the Stone Mountian Library. We have great plans for the New Year including upcoming auditions in January and the launch of our 4th season. Help to keep the environment clean and please donate old cell phones and ink jet printers to our on-going PhoneRaiser. Please call 678-438-4996 for more information.

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group

ON December 6, 2006, Dr. Imani Ma'at and Ms. Leslyn Wong of Y.E.S. 4 Health made a presentation to the Roswell Rotary Club at the invitation of Mr. Keith Miller and the President of the Club, Mr. Hans Meier. Club members warmly received our presentation and were very excited about what we do. One member involved in the Rotary Club's 16 internation projects requested a copy of the PowerPoint and suggested that there may be opportunities to collaborate on one of the international projects.

That same evening a meeting was held of some of the new and contnuing volunteers. YES welcomes the new volunteers: McKenzie Wren, Julia Kibunja, Aaron Thomas, and Steve Williams. We appreciate all of you. We are currently planning for a meeting of the Board of Directors on January 6th; peer educator auditions which will be held in January; and fundraising ideas. Please remember to donate all old cell phones and ink jet printer cartridges to the Y.E.S. "Phoneraiser." Please place boxes in your offices, churches and other places frequented and assist us with this effort. If you collect a boxload of items, you can contact Dr. Ma'at and we will pick them up or we can send you FedEx mailing labels.

In January Y.E.S. will be conducting a needs assessment of the issue of youth gang violence in Clarkston, GA. Our aim is to assess current programs and services in the and determine how Y.E.S. might fill in some of the program gaps in the area. Stay tuned for more!

We also just learned that we were selected by the Sevenanda Natural Foods Coop, to participate in their Community Change Program in September 2007 - which will feature Y.E.S. 4 Health displays and encourage shoppers to donate to the program. They have also encouraged us to seek partnership with them throughout the year - not just September. This is a great opportunity!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season from Y.E.S. 4 Health, Inc.

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group

Y.E.S. takes to the airwaves! WRFG, 98.3 FM, your listerner-supported progressive radio station gracially assisted Y.E.S. 4 Health in recording a public service announcement designed to attract more per educators and volunteers to work on our current production on HIV/AIDS. Please make sure to tune in to WRFG for the best rario programming in Atlanta. Also, if you know of youth in Fulton and Dekalb Counties that need Community Service credit, please let them know that they can earn their credits by volunteering with Y.E.S. 4 Health - learning about all aspects of theater and health promotion at the same time...and having fun!!!

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group

On Sunday, September 3rd, Y.E.S. 4 Health had the pleasure of hosting a reception for international visitors from South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Ghana. The visitors were representing very active Unions in their countries and were on a mission to increase funding for HIV awareness and treatments for familes that they represent. It was a very enjoyable and educational evening. The youth and other guests had and opportunity to ask important questions of the visitors.
Come join Y.E.S 4 Health as a volunteer or student and help us to create theatrical presentations on critical health issues in our communities.....
For more information please call 678-438-4996 or 404-964-2337.

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group

With funding from the Morehouse School of Medicine, Y.E.S. 4 Health, Inc. is building its infrastructure in order to serve more teens and to address issues of gang violence in Dekalb County. Also, Y.E.S. will identify new Board Members at meeting to be held on July 30th.

Y.E.S. 4 Health Teen Theater Group

The young folks in Y.E.S. 4 Health did a phenomenal job performing their HIV production entitled "Young Love and HIV" on May 5th and 6 th at the Horizons School. If you missed them, they will perform again on Saturday May 13th (12:00pm) at the Morehouse School of Medicine's Women's Health Conference. For more information on the conference go to www.msm.edu.