Strategic Planning Workshop

Today, 1/26/24, the Board of Directors for YESS participated in a strategic planning workshop with the United Way of Bemidji Area! The board discussed education/outreach, finance, building, operations, and programming. After the meeting, the board looked at a house being considered for the shelter. It was indeed an inspiring and educational day, for sure! Thank you, Denae from @United Way of Bemidji Area, for helping lead conversations and tasking yourself with helping us build our strategic plan! Thank you to Bella Caffe and Third Street Market for letting us use the fabulous space! Thank you to Bri Anderson for taking headshots for our website and other workshop photos (including this one) and using your real estate experience to show us the potential shelter location! Thank you to the board of directors who took time from their day jobs to ensure this workshop was successful! As the founder, seeing the passion and motivation in the room was truly humbling!

-Kori

Cultivate Program January Edition

What a busy day for the Cultivate Program! The Park Rapids ALC students traveled to Vacationaire Resort and Clancy's On Island Lake and got hands-on experience hosting, serving, cooking, and dishes. The students wrapped up the trip with a Q & A with owner Nikki Jordet Clancy about what they look for in employees and what it takes to run a business. Students had spare time, so they got a tour of the new room in the basement and then enjoyed some games!

Thank you to Nikki and the Vacationaire staff for letting the students learn some on-the-job skills!

#Minnesota #MN #lifeskills #severs #host #cook #vacationaire #students #parkrapidsmn #school #parkrapidspanthers #supportlocal

YESS asks Nevis City Council for support

Park Rapids Enterprise. 1/11/24, Lorie Skarpness

Kori Nelson, director of Youth Emergency Shelter & Support (YESS), asked the Nevis City Council to be part of the community effort to open a shelter in Hubbard County at their meeting on Monday, Jan. 8.

The mission of YESS is to create a program to meet the needs of young people in need of housing, especially those not eligible for help from other programs.

Nelson said statistics show that there are 550,000 homeless youth in the U.S. and 6,000 in Minnesota. She said a lack of foster homes in Hubbard County means youth who are homeless often are sent out of the area to obtain safe shelter.

“We want to provide a full range of services for homeless youth in Hubbard County,” she said. “It truly does take a village to make a nonprofit grow. We are working with the United Way of Bemidji and many community groups in Hubbard County.”

Nelson told the story of a homeless teen in Hubbard County who went to an area church for help. “Imagine what we can do with a shelter.”

The next steps are to survey area youth to find out how many are homeless and obtain funding for a shelter.

“We’re looking for a location for an emergency shelter for youth and working on a long-term solution,” she said. “This is a problem in Hubbard County and here in Nevis.”

She encouraged the council to consider ways to help the project progress, including donating tax-forfeited land within the city.