Youth Success Academy is ‘a win-win’

♦ The program pays local graduates to gain work experience at small businesses.

Four years after graduation, a Model High School alum has found her passion in helping the children of Rome.

She’s doing it through a partnership between the Rome-floyd County Commission on Children and Youth and Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s Youth Success Academy.

Abby Larry met the executive director of RFCCCY, Ladonna Collins, when she was working at Snazzy Rags boutique last year and said there was an immediate connection.

“We have the same energy,” Larry said. “I wanted to come work for her right away, but because they were a nonprofit they did not have a way to pay me.”

Flash forward to the beginning of January when Larry discovered the YSA’S Work Experience program, which pays her a wage to work as the office assistant at the RFCCCY and gain job experience.

“Hands-on experience is my forte,” she said. “Everything Ladonna does I am doing too, just behind the scenes.”

During the commission’s 31st annual luncheon, the two worked in tandem — with Collins presenting checks to community partners and Larry lining them up to take photos. While she’s only in her second week, Larry said there are several RFCCCY programs that she can’t wait to get her hands on.

“This is the second time we have gotten a student worker through this program and it has been great,” Collins said. “We are getting young adults who are excited about helping the Rome community.”

The RFCCCY executive director said by the end of Larry’s time at the commission, she hopes to have her set up to take the next step in her career. Collins, who once was a coordinator in GNTC’S YSA program, said the program is a stepping stone for young adults.

“The relationships and the

Abby Larry takes photos of the Rome-floyd County Commission on Children and Youth’s 31st annual luncheon. Larry works for the RFCCCY through the Youth Success Academy’s Work Experience program at GNTC. contacts you make will guide you till your next phase in life,” she said. “That’s almost more important to me than just the work experience.”

Larry said her post-secondary journey has been different than what she imagined. After a year of classes at a four-year college, she decided it wasn’t for her.

“I have felt hopeless for years,” she said. “No one ever told me this program was an option and now I am so excited to finally be doing what I want to do.”

Vince Stalling, youth services coordinator for the YSA, said the work-experience program partners with local small businesses in Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd and Walker counties.

“Participants benefit from being able to gain income through temporary employment and local business receives free labor, which is a win-win,” he said.

The program is offered to 18- to 24-year-olds with a high school diploma or GED. Students work for four months and up to 40 hours a week. Stallings said this year the YSA is contracted to work with 60 young adults.

GNTC has YSA locations on the campuses of Floyd and Walker counties and is in a partnership with the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission.