Founded in 1995, and modeled after the Midtown Educational Foundation of Chicago, we began mentoring at Benavidez Elementary School in San Antonio. Our Houston and Garland programs began in 2000, and in 2003 we added the Irving ISD.

In 2001 we created a day-time tutoring program in Garland that utilizes high school students as tutors and the following year we began offering English as a Second Language and parenting classes to our Garland parents.

Currently we have averaged over 150 students per week for our regular one-on-one mentoring. When we include the day-time tutoring and Parenting classes we are serving well over 200 persons per week state wide.

YAF differs from other tutoring programs because we offer a long-term commitment. Once a student enters our program, they remain eligible to continue with us, provided that they stay within the school district and keep on with their studies.

Our long-term goals are to provide a dedicated mentor for every qualified child in the schools we serve and to continue supporting those students through high-school graduation. 

We achieve our goals by implementing a system that provides both vertical and horizontal growth, by following current students as they move into higher grades and by adding more elementary schools to grow the program.

We are very proud that parents and teachers regularly report real improvement in our student’s behavior, both at home and in school.

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