An out-of-school time program across high schools, led by students, YAGA focuses on developing life skills, leadership abilities, and honing each student’s voice.
YAGA emphasizes the importance of improving youth development outcomes with a focus on youth engagement, youth voice, long-term commitment, community involvement, youth college and career readiness, and art-based STEAM learning.
Foundation
The Developmental Relationships Framework and the 40 Developmental Assets forge the foundation for YAGA’s curriculum.
Think back on your life, and you can most likely identify one teacher, friend, mentor, or person who was there for you and helped you unravel who you were as a teenager, built up your strengths, and improved your ability to connect with other people. YAGA hopes to provide a development relationship for our youth.
Every participant’s leadership and team-building skills are developed through a youth-led curriculum. While every chapter has mentors and a team to offer support, YAGA is youth-driven. The students help shape the program itself.
Building upon their school curriculum, YAGA expands the opportunity for STEAM projects and creative and innovative technological application experiences such as website design, photography, and graphic design.
Alongside technological development, the out-of-school-time program helps develop overall life skills. The program offers opportunities for financial training, project management, time management improvement, professional decorum best practices, and expanding healthy life choices.
YAGA meets once a week after school for one hour at participating schools. Learn more about YAGA
Eligibility
YAGA is available within participating schools.
If you are attending one of our participating schools, please submit your information! Our team members will be in touch with the next steps.
For our participating elementary schools, YAGA is available for fourth-grade and fifth-grade students. For third-grade and below, we have our Families and Schools Together (FAST) and third-grade reading tutors available at certain schools.
Locations and Time
YAGA takes place at each participating school, and times will vary by location.
Edgewood ISD:
- Perales Elementary
- Brentwood Middle
- Kennedy High School
Harlandale ISD:
- Schulze Elementary School
- Kingsborough Middle School
- STEM Early College High School
Northside ISD:
- Passmore Elementary School
- Anson Jones Middle School
- John Jay High School
South San ISD:
- Carrillo Elementary
- Dwight Middle School
- South San High School
San Antonio ISD:
- Washington Elementary
- Davis Middle School
- Sam Houston High School
FAQS
Find the answers to your questions here
How old do I need to be to join YAGA?
YAGA takes place in elementary, middle, and high schools. Students fourth grade and above attending one of these schools may join.
How do I join?
YAGA is free to join; the only requirement is that you must be attending a participating school. If you are interested in joining, call us at 210-216-4907 or complete our form for the next steps.
What happens in YAGA?
YAGA is youth-led, meaning the students within the program help shape each session. The Family Service team provides resources and guidance on various STEAM, life skills, and workforce development topics; the students choose what they would like to explore. YAGA also focuses on community engagement. Volunteer projects will be available monthly for students to give back to our community
How much does YAGA cost?
YAGA is a free program!
How do I get to YAGA? What if I don’t have transportation?
YAGA is hosted at each of the participating schools. While school is virtual due to COVID-19, our sessions will also be virtual. For additional events and community service projects, transportation needs are assessed on an individual event basis and on student’s needs.
