It’s no secret children need a safe home environment in order to grow, learn and become successful and proactive adults. Unfortunately, many children across the Baton Rouge area do not go home to an environment that will guarantee them safety and protection, therefore hindering their chances of becoming productive members of society.
The Youth Empowerment Program or YEP Village, wants to change that. Starting in September of last year with the help of a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, YEP Village aims to provide an after-school sanctuary for African American boys starting at age 10. The Youth Empowerment Program consists of after school programs and workshops aiming to promote positive behavior.
Currently, there are elementary school boys in the program. The young men come into the program from two target schools: Capital Elementary School and Melrose Elementary. These schools are chosen because they are located within areas that have been served by the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination (BRAVE) project, or neighborhoods that are considered distressed inner city districts.
Behind every child is a village that bands together to help raise it. Melanie Washington, director of YEP Village is one of the key members of this village.
Born in Rayne, Louisiana, social work was not at the top of her priority list when she was younger.“I never thought I’d be a social worker,” Washington said. “When I was a kid, a social worker would come into our home and check things out and see how things were going and we ended up being removed from the home.”
Washington admits that her feelings toward social workers weren’t always positive. “I guess I had this subconscious, negative feeling building towards social workers because we were removed from our home.”
As Washington got older and started researching the roles and responsibilities of social workers, she felt a shift in her attitude towards the system.
“I didn’t have to be a baby snatcher as they call it,” she said. “You know, going into the homes and taking kids, but there was so many things that you can do as a social worker. Even if psychology is a good field to go into [social work] is more specific and you can work in so many different places.”
Once she graduated high school, Washington moved to Baton Rouge to study at Southern University. However, a whole other field stole her heart.
“It’s kind of funny, I started out in theatre,” Washington said. “I got my bachelors degree in theatre arts from Southern University.”
However, by the time her undergraduate years were coming to an end, something sparked inside Washington.
“Around my last year of undergrad, I thought about, you know, what I was really going to do with theatre, do I really want to do that?” Washington stated. “I always had this thing where I feel like I should be helping people and maybe be doing therapy or become a psychologist.”
With this in mind, Washington started her journey to receiving a master’s degree in psychology. A brief meeting with her counselor and a look at the curriculum pushed Washington to believe that she was making the right decision. However, because of her lack of prerequisites, she couldn’t start psychology right away and decided to start on a new leaf in graduate school.
Now as the Director for YEP Village, Washington confessed that the boys in the program have become the best part of her job.
“Watching the boys grow in so many ways. They are little people and it’s wonderful watching them evolve socially, physically and emotionally.” Washington also gives credit where it’s due: thanking all of the volunteers and staff members for pushing the program forward.
“I love that this team, YEP Village staff, interns and volunteers have been charged with the great task of depositing positive seeds into our little people and having the opportunity to water those seeds along with their journey.”
For Washington, obtaining the coveted title as YEP Village’s Directed, was easier than she thought. In fact, she found out about the opportunity while browsing online and found the advertisement.
“It described a program to empower and enrich the lives of African American males in elementary school” Washington said.  “As I continued to search, there was also a position for program director. I read the qualifications and I qualified for the position. I applied immediately and was so excited when I received a call from Judith to set up an interview. The interview must have went well because here I am.”
YEP Village is divided into a variety of programs to ensure the young students receive the proper growth and development.
The Positive Action component is used to promote pro-social behavior, assist with developing a positive self-concept and healthy decision-making. These behaviors are instilled by the intuitive philosophy stating people are most likely to feel good about themselves when they do something positive.
Members of the YEP Village also receive assistance in academia. The Academic All Stars Program provides help with homework and tutoring. This component, allows the group to complete their homework with the help of staffers and interns as the tutors.
Perhaps the favorite of the program for the children are the enrichment activities.
The students participate in team building activities, such as putting puzzles together in teams or assisting one another in completing mazes while blindfolded. They have the chance to play sports such as football, baseball, and dodge ball to name a few. LSU students can check them out most evenings, playing ball or some form of tag behind Middleton library.  During the summer time, students participated in weekly field-trips, worked together on fun science projects such as creating an egg-drop and testing it, making solar ovens then using it to make s’mores, building bridges with popsicle sticks, and other fun activities.   
“They even had a great time sewing pillows this summer” Washington added.
Finally, the fourth component has to be the most essential to the program, the family engagement activities.
This component is really important to the success of the students.  Every month, YEP facilitates a 2 hour workshop with parents/guardians of the YEP students.   
“During this workshop, our facilitator, Mr. Reginald Johnson, engages in many different topics with the parents/guardians” Washington declared. 
Parents have the opportunity to engage with one another during this workshop to discuss relevant topics, to develop their skills and behaviors, and possibly improve their communication and interaction with their children.
There is no better way to see how much this program has influence the students than meeting with them.
McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School sixth grader Arthur Perkins began participating in YEP Village as a fifth grader, and said the program has made him a better person.
“It’s really helped with my self-confidence” Arthur said. “We help each other and encourage each other. If someone says they can’t do something, we tell them they can.”
Arthur said YEP has helped him become more positive, as Washington and her team place great emphasis on not reacting negatively to stressful situations. He also gets his homework done faster with the help of his YEP mentors, and has become a better student.
“We get to answer questions and read from the book about someone having a problem and think of ways to solve it” Arthur said.
For Arthur, YEP Village is like a more fun version of school in which he can develop a brotherhood with fellow low-income African-American Baton Rouge area middle-school students, and learn more about himself.
Capitol Middle School sixth grader Joshua Robins echoes Arthur’s thoughts about YEP Village and its ability to make the boys better students. Joshua said that YEP has caused rejuvenation in his academic life.
Before coming to YEP, Joshua’s grades were slipping.
“I was doing pretty bad,” Joshua said. “But then as soon as I came here, my grades started to pull up.”
Joshua said his grades have gotten better because in YEP Village he has found mentors who understand him. They accept him, listen to what he has to say and help him with his reading comprehension and math problems, he said.
He’s beginning to conquer these academic issues more and more as he participates in YEP after school.
“When we’re done our homework, we work on math sheets, which help me understand” Joshua said. “The program helps me stay positive under [school] pressure and peer pressure.”YEP preaches to Joshua and the other children about staying calm and not being too hard on themselves and the keys to positivity. Deep breaths in and out and meditation” Joshua said. “That’s what we do when we feel stressed.”
Arthur and Joshua are fundamentally different boys. Arthur is bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm, an easily detectable fire within him. Joshua is reserved, timid and easy going.
No matter their differences, the boys said YEP Village has affected them, changed them for the better.
The two do have one thing in common — the best part of the enrichment aspect of the program for them is getting to play football outside.
Their love for the program doesn’t go unnoticed. Erica Mattingly is the enrichment specialist for the YEP Program and is responsible for coordinating the games and activities the students love so much.
Mattingly has been working for the program since December of last year and heard about an opportunity to give back in the program from the announcement of the program receiving the grant.
“I read the press release about the grant on LSU’s website and then contacted the OSSRD to see how I could contribute” she said.
Mattingly expressed her best part of the job is the children and witnessing their growth.
“Working with the boys and seeing them learn and discover new things” she said. “Some had never painted, or built something out of clay, or sewn a pillow, or built a sun-powered oven, or typed code into a computer to produce their own video games. It’s quite magical and inspiring really.”
In fact, Mattingly had a some words of wisdom to share with them.
“Keep your chins up high, work hard, and persevere through the tough times. You’re more powerful and compassionate than you think.”
Another influential member of YEP Village is Eugene Bentley who has been their program coordinator since August of this year.
“I oversee assigned daily program operations for YEP Village, and I develop and schedule program activities for the students when they arrive at YEP Village” he said.
As YEP Village’s daily program specialist, Bentley can pick out which programs are the best for the students in terms of overall development.
“Building that strong rapport with each kid and being very observant, it’s pretty easy to know what social skills a kid needs to work on.”
From these observations, it is also easy to decipher which activity is a favorite among the children.
“A lot of the kids that attend Yep Village love sports, so they enjoy going outside to compete against one another” he said. “Also they love when the have the opportunity to do their homework at Yep Village so they don’t have to do it at home.  We have some interns and service learning students to come out and assist each kid with their homework or any other problem they are having in regards to academics.”Bentley confessed that the best part of his job at YEP Village is being a positive role model for the children.
Bentley also could not resist giving the children of YEP Village some words of encouragement.
“You can do anything if you put your mind to it” he said.
“I always tell the kids that its so many different careers out there, but you just have to stay focus in school” he said. 
“I always try to bring people with different occupations to come and talk with the kids to explain to them that there are more careers out there besides sports.”
Every child needs a support system and YEP Village is providing that support to dozens of young boys in the Baton Rouge area. For boys like Austin and Joshua, YEP Village is a place to call home, where they can learn about themselves and world around them and build skills that will help them become productive individuals in society. For Washington, Mattingly and Bentley, YEP Village has become their outlet for giving back and giving them the opportunity to influence many “little people” in more ways than one.
YEP Village is more than a village, it’s a community devoted to giving children a second chance.