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Meet the Say Yes Staff

Say Yes to Education: Say YES to Success!

Say Yes to Education, Inc. (Say Yes) is a national, non-profit education foundation committed to dramatically increasing high school and college graduation rates for our nation's inner-city youth.

Say Yes provides comprehensive supports, including the promise of free college tuition to one of nearly 100 colleges and universities for those who meet residency, graduation and admission requirements, aligned with what research indicates is needed to enable every child in the program to achieve his or her potential.

The Say Yes promise and supports begin when a child enters kindergarten and continue through high school and beyond. The range of services Say Yes offers across its Chapters include everything from after-school and summer programming, mentoring, tutoring, and school-day academic support to family outreach, scholarships, and social work/ psychological services. Additionally, Say Yes partners provide high-quality health care and legal assistance. These services help to create a positive, sustaining framework for each student's academic experience, one that encourages and rewards continued effort.

Say Yes to Education Syracuse

Although there are Say Yes chapters located in Cambridge, MA; Hartford, CT; New York City, NY, and Philadelphia, PA., the Syracuse chapter is unique in that it is the first Say Yes chapter to embrace an entire city school district, making it the largest school improvement program of its kind in the nation!

The 4-year rollout of Syracuse Say Yes began in the fall of 2008 in the Corcoran quadrant. During this first phase, over 800 K-3 students participated in the Say Yes After School program and the Summer Camp program. Six hundred seniors became Say Yes graduates. In the second phase of the rollout this fall, the after school and summer school programs in the Corcoran quadrant will expand to serve grades K-4 and after school and summer camp programs will be offered to students in grades K-3 in the Fowler quadrant.

Four Say Yes to Education Legal Clinic are staffed by volunteer legal professionals from the community. The clinics are located at Dr. King Magnet School, Elmwood School, Delaware Elementary and Frazer. Attorneys and paralegals assist families with children in the SCSD by providing advice, brief service and referrals relating to legal matters that may interfere with their child’s ability to succeed in school. For specific dates and times click here. 

Huntington Family Centers have partnered with Say Yes to Education to provide Family Support, a voluntary parent driven program that helps families remove barriers to engagement in school and student success. Any family with a child at Bellevue Elementary, Bellevue Middle School Academy, Blodgett, Delaware, Dr. King, Elmwood, Fowler, Frazer, Meachem, McKinley-Brighton, Porter, Roberts, Seymour, and VanDuyn is eligible for Family Support Services. For more information, click here.