YIELD International Outreach Programs

Welcome to YIELD online!

YIELD International Outreach Programs, Inc, a Kansas corporation, is organized as a not for profit organization and designated 501(C)3 by the Internal Revenue Services.

YIELD, the acronym for Youth Initiatives in Education and Leadership Development, provides a matrix of services to assist at-risk youth ages 5 through 17 years old expand their horizons, draw on their inner strength and learn life lessons vital to healthy mental, emotional, physical and spiritual growth. Our management team seeks to create and foster multifunctional program components that assist in delivering four ingredients necessary for youth to develop in a positive way to connect them to their community: a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, and a sense of power.

The organization has a heart and spirit to help our community through our services and partnerships provided to children, youth and their families. Program components are designed to go beyond charity to foster social change and build self-reliance. YIELD is non-discriminatory in its holistic service delivery, which is administered in love, utilizing a trained core staff and volunteers. YIELD International Outreach Programs is designed to focus on the positive outcomes we desire for young people, not the negative outcomes we hope to prevent. Our philosophy, framework, practices and other aspects of the organization are designed to focus on our participants’ strengths rather than their weaknesses or failings. Our youth development approach shifts the dialogue from one that focuses on youth with problems to one in which communities can begin defining what youth need to grow into healthy adults, nurture their strengths and to provide the necessary ingredients as early in life as possible. This is the underlying principle that has been the driving force behind the organization’s success.

Our primary focus is not simply on providing services, but YIELD emphasizes offering young people a complement of services and opportunities that enables them to develop leadership skills, interact with other young people from various backgrounds and in different stages of maturation, and provide opportunities for youth to become involved in their communities in ways that build on their strengths and talents, giving them hope for the future.

Oftentimes, traditional educational initiatives have failed to reach our young people, allowing many of them to fall through the cracks. Therefore, we, as a society, must develop new and innovative perspectives when it comes to youth, poverty and prevention. In some instances, one must leave their own environment in order to gain a true perspective of community and formulate values they personally deem as important in life.

It is YIELD International’s intent to be a lifeline to weave youth into the very core of the community's fabric. Programs seek to engage its participants in innovative, interactive, transformative learning experiences, which often include local, regional, national and international exposure opportunities through missions and educational travel. Exposure experiences are coupled with ongoing outreach and follow-up of participants of the program.

YIELD International Outreach Programs’ professionals place great organizational emphasis on the need to educate families and the community about adolescent development.Adolescent development is part of the overall human development process. We concur with industry experts who have discovered that helping young people achieve positive outcomes as they approach and during adolescence is key to a lifetime of continuing personal growth. This element of life passages often receives little focus in a society that emphasizes academic or professional achievements only, over personal introspection or growth.

The return (or the yield) on the organization’s and its partners’ investment is more productive lives, and useful citizens of our area neighborhoods.

Marie Frasure-Executive Director