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YESS has served approximately 3,000 youth and role models through partnerships with over 65 agencies, schools and institutions. We have worked and are working with eight schools in the Denver Public School, Douglas County Schools and Jefferson County School systems.

YESS was featured twice on Colorado Public Radio’s “Colorado Matters” and on the television program “MetroBeat TV” in collaboration with Denver Student Voices at Metro University.

In the last 12 months, YESS produced two documentaries of its Youth Mentor Leadership Programs: a. “Tuesdays at Morey,” about cross-culture, cross-age mentoring by Little Voice Productions, which won a Telly Award for best quality/budget ratio b. “Building Character through Youth Empowerment,” by RM SER, about the impact of the YESS program on Latino youth, funded by Dr. Maria Guajardo Lucero at the Mayor’s Office of Education and Children.

Other achievements and engagements: a. The Daniels School of Business developed a three-year business plan for YESS in 2004. b. YESS presented “IQ without EQ Equals Failure” at the prestigious Colorado Association of School Boards Annual Conference c. The Denver Foundation allowed us to work closely with Richard Male and his team with a capacity building grant. d. Richard Male coaches co-founder Carlo Kriekels on a pro-bono basis. e. In 2005 and 2006, YESS has been a recipient of the Colorado Compassion Initiative by JVA Consulting. f. Co-founder Kriekels sits currently as an expert on Adams County district attorney Don Quick’s Gang Prevention Committee. g. YESS currently actively collaborates with the main Denver mentoring agencies and Denver Public Schools Superintendent Bennett through the Youth Mentoring Collaborative.

86% in post-test (increase of 24 percentage points) are able to identify triggers/hot buttons that get them in trouble.

86% in post-test (increase of 49 percentage points) were able to identify ways to stay cool in conflict.

In pre-test very few students were able to describe positive ways to confront someone. In the post-test, 68% were able to do so, which means the students learned the importance of confronting someone calmly and without an attitude.

59% of students could name at least four ways for staying cool in difficult situations, compared with 4% in pre-test.

None of the student, in pre-test, knew how to set boundaries in comparison with 41% in the post-test.

To the question –“Can you avoid fighting when someone wants to fight you?”– 46% said no or left it blank in pre-test with 64% saying yes in the post-test.

School attitude of the middle school students

“Is it important for you to succeed in school?” After the program, we saw an increase of 33% from 63% reporting it was before the program to 96% in the post-test.

Post-test 77% indicated that it is very important to succeed in school, in comparison to 36% pre-test. A total of 95% answered important or very important in the post-test

None of the students were reported to have worse school conduct after the program

Half of the students’ grades improved following the program

Influence from positive high school role model

86% said they had more self-confidence because of their mentor

82% said yes to the question: “Did your mentor give you any advice or teach you anything?”

“I trust my mentor completely. I would tell my mentor anything about myself, even my secrets that I don’t tell anyone else.” In pre-test 9% of students felt this way. After the program, 59% of the students chose this answer, with a total of 91% trusting their mentor at some level. This proves the secret of the success to have high school youth be role models to middle schoolers as trust is the cornerstone to developing skills for safe and open relationships.

Overall satisfaction from all students

91% will make changes in life because of what they learned in the program.

100% are glad they participated and equally 100% state they learned something new.

96.4% of participants stated that the burnout prevention workshop information was “excellent” or“ good”.

94.6% of participants considered the workshop as “very useful” or “useful".

100% of the participants said the YESS facilitator’s skills were “excellent” or “good.”

"The principals of YESS understand better than other trainers the real challenges faced by both the mentors AND the highly at-risk youth. I have witnessed first-hand their way of engaging the volunteers so that real conversation about the frustrations (as well as the satisfactions) of helping our Dreamers comes to the surface and ultimately turns into problem-solving among the group. (I now realize this is one of their primary strategies in the group process.) They use humor effectively and their own experiences, as well as openess and frankness to "permit" the volunteer issues to emerge." Mary Lee Hanewall - Executive Director, Colorado I Have A Dream Foundation

"Our volunteers greatly enjoyed and benefited from this training. It now gives us a common language to use when discussing situations that arise in their mentoring and tutoring roles." Diane Stobnicke - Project Manager, Volunteers of America

"At the end of the workshop my staff told me that they were able to use the information presented in the workshop to solve a conflict, which arose, just minutes after the workshop ended." Doris Benavides - Project Coordinator, University of Northern Colorado

From Youth

"I think it is very good. You are not waisting your time. You are letting out your anger and you won't get in trouble in school. And that's gonna help you a lot." Ceaira, 11 telling how she feels about boxing as a form of dealing with anger in a responsible way.

"I appreciate the interactions and group activities. I think it helps youth to understand their emotions & feelings more." Stacy - Staying Kool™ for Youth

"I really liked this workshop. It made me happy and it took all of my madness away." Shavon - Staying Kool™ for Youth

“I really feel that this will help because sometimes I forget that when my buttons are pushed I become a bully and this has really helped me identify who I am when I have been upsetted and how I can prevent it.” Justin - Staying Kool™ for Youth

From Volunteers

“I learned that I tend to stuff my emotions until I eventually explode and that a lot of my mentee’s behavior is caused by what I project onto her." Mentor – Positive Role Modeling

"I learned how beneficial it is to set boundaries and confront the student. Even though it may be uncomfortable, it is beneficial for the student." Mentor - Positive Role Modeling

"I learned how unspoken agreements affect relationships and practical ways to confront difficult situations." Mentor - Positive Role Modeling Series

"The YESS training is the first training in 3 years that really, honestly made sense!" Seasoned mentor after attending YESS series on Positive Role Modeling

From Parents

"She seems calmer, more at peace with who she is and that's alright. And I feel that it's all happened this semester and I believe that the YESS Institute's program really helped her kind of settle and be happy with herself." Mother talking about her middle school daughter after completing the Youth Mentor Leadership Program

"I have definitely seen an improvement in her. She made honor roll this year after she almost got held back last year." Single mother talking about her middle school daughter after completing the Youth Mentor Leadership Program.