Note: The following was provided by Pamela Baker-King, the Executive Director of the Youth Working Toward a “Speedy” Awareness. – KtE

YWTSA celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their Literacy Y.E.S. (Youth Experiencing Success) Reading Program with the theme ” D.E.A.R. ( Drop Everything and Read) T.E.A.M. ( Together Everyone Achieves More).” During the months of June 2020 and July 2020,  YWTSA launched the Pals & Tote  Program using their bookmobile to deliver over 500 books of every literary Genre using social/physical distancing. Each youth received a tote bag with books, balloons,  school supplies, and a reading pal (stuff animal). The parents/guardians received books by Ruth Bowdoin lessons focusing on how children learn and read, the importance of good feelings, and parents as teachers.

For two decades, YWTSA has provided services for youth in the State of Alabama and Georgia in the educational, liberal arts, political and community service arenas. The Literacy Y.E.S. Program is center based and designed to extend/refine learning to assist youth pre-school through 5th grade with reading comprehension, as well as social skills development. The program utilized assessments, reading and sight word inventories, guided and choral reading,  text sets, think alouds, real life experiences and other intervention strategies to assist youth in becoming fluent readers supervised by certified educators and trained volunteer.

YWTSA has worked with churches, schools, public officials,  local agencies and community based programs that helped our youth become humanitarians, honor and dean’s list recipients,  class and homecoming queens, class presidents, pharmacist technicians,  teachers, high school and college cheerleader captains, coordinator of computer programs, businessmen, radiation therapist and essential workers.

Throughout the years YWTSA has implemented the following programs: visits to Cedartown Library and Lily of the Valley Personal Care Home, collecting food, clothes, household items and distributing to Our House Thrift Store, Samatitan House, Community Share Ministry and needy families in Cedartown; Georgia; Youth Conference Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia; Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama; Piedmont Library and  Aquatic Centers in Piedmont, Alabama; sponsored mini-health fairs with dental screenings, including free book fairs. Also,  wrote and presented the first ever Martin Luther King, Jr. Proclamation for the city of Cedartown, Georgia (2007) and the city of Jacksonville, Alabama (2010). 

YWTSA,Inc. wish to thank the following individuals and businesses who enhanced the success of the Literacy Y.E.S. Reading Program Theresa Johnson Curry, Secolonia Morris, Kelsea Jackson, Khalefa King, Dorothy Davenport, Deborah Jackson, Candice Frasier, Major Estella McDermott, Gladys Gipson, Nancy Collier, Tasha Jackson, Sarah Darden, late Velma Sewell,  Ernestine Ellis and Ruthie Sumlar,  Michael McDermott, Paula Frasier, Gail Flemister, Frank & Peggy Burgess,  Portia Ellis, Deborah Diamond,  Lily of the Valley Personal Care Home, WGAA Radio, Our House Thrift Store, Samaritian House, Cedartown Library, City of Cedartown Board of Commissioners,  Community Share Ministry, Penny Pinchers, Lebetter Insurance Company and Bradford Drugs, Inc. 

YWTSA, Inc. is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide individualized, as well as group pathways designed to connect each youth to educational and social skills.