| Fellowship Foundation 12th Annual “YOUTH CONNECTION WEEKEND” PlaySmart partnered with New Orleans-based Fellowship Foundation to develop and deliver the 12th Annual Black History Month Youth Connection Weekend. This year (February 21-24) we took sixty at-risk young men (grades 6-12) to Jackson State University, where they were joined by other students from Atlanta, Georgia, and Tuskegee, Alabama. The Youth Connection is designed with four objecives in mind: 1. To expose the students to colleges in the area to get them excited about higher education, 2. To teach the students about local history by taking them to local historical points of interest, 3. To promote a drug and violence-free lifestyle, which were promoted by the leaders and chaperones throughout the weekend, 4. To promote friendship, as many students traveled outside New Orleans for the first time in their lives and met with other students from different parts of the country. The weekend was an enormous success and all of our objectives were met! The trip was a reward for the members of the Fellowship Foundation. Led by Charles Alexander, The Fellowship Foundation is a network of New Orleans parish schools that work together to provide opportunities for underprivileged kids in the New Orleans area. To remain in the program, students must maintain a 2.5 grade point average. Several hundred students have “graduated” from the Fellowship Foundation program since its inception in 1990. PlaySmart is excited to be partnering with the Fellowship Foundation again in 2002. |