Help the African American Youth Harvest Foundation
It gives me great pleasure to request your support for the African American Youth Harvest Foundation. (AAYHF).
The African American Youth Harvest Foundation (AAYHF), a tax exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, would like to request the support of your company to underwrite the cost of our Programs and Services / COVID-19 Initiatives at the African American Youth Harvest Foundation’s Resource Center (AAYRC). The mission of AAYHF is to advocate, strengthen, and provide culturally relevant, family-centered education, health and human services, and economic development opportunities to African American youth, their families, and other ethnicities that are the at-risk populations that reside primarily in Northeast Austin and the Greater Austin Texas area.
We just ended our Urban University Virtual Summer Camp that ended on July 3rd, 2020. Our Summer Youth Employment Program started July 6th, 2020 and runs through August 7th, 2020. In addition to our camps, we are facilitating our weekly youth Group Mentoring Programs.
We are trying to raise funds to expand our reach and support hundreds of needy families with small children ages 0-5 because our children are among the most vulnerable at times like these, yet research tells us that these are the most critical years in a child’s development and sets the foundation for their future achievement and life success. Our Early Childhood Expansion Planning report, made possible by generous funding from the St. David’s Foundation, can be found at our website at //www.aayhf.org/reports.
Here is brief list of some of our needs we are seeking to support our community: HEB and Walmart Gift Cards for food, pampers, etc.; tablets for kids to support our Virtual Out-of-School Programming due to COVID-19; scholarship support at Austin Community Foundation and Austin Community College; unemployed parents and families in need of services and support; and support for hiring more case managers, social workers, mental health counselors.
AAYHF has been doing this work and has intentionally focused on the African American community for 13 years; however, we have served and continue to serve other ethnicities that are included in the thousands of individuals we serve. Over the past few weeks, we facilitated the awards of college scholarships to 15 students! Yet, it saddens me to say, that of $30 million in funding that has been distributed by local funding government. agencies to nonprofits for COVID-19 relief, over the past two months, we have applied and not received one dollar of this funding to help our organization service families. As a foundation, we have weathered our fair share of institutional discrimination and politics, to say the least. We continue to come out-of-our pockets personally to help families who need immediate and direct assistance. Your donation will help tremendously!
Because of COVID-19 our families need (and will continue to need) support more than ever. AAYHF has one part-time social worker who has been fielding inquiries from families. It continues to be unsafe and more difficult than ever for families with children (especially single-parent households) to venture out and find food and supplies without over-exposing themselves to this virus.
Details
July 24, 2020
African American Youth Harvest Foundation