Our Mission

The Neighborhood Youth Academy (NYA) is a 501 (c) (3) organized exclusively to provide systemic solutions to closing the Opportunity gap for underserved children and families by focusing on Academic Achievement, Citizenship, Life Skills, and Fitness to create successful leaders in our community!

Results Policies:
R-1: Academic Achievement
R-2: Citizenship
R-3: Life Skills
R-4: Fitness

R-1: Academic Achievement

All student participants will stretch to achieve academic excellence without racial predictability and graduate to high school prepared for college-level preparatory classes and/or programs.

Students will:

1. Identify challenging personal academic goals and develop, implement, and evaluate plans to achieve them.
2. Commit to focusing, implementing, evaluating and adjusting personal effort levels in balance with program standards of excellence collectively agreed upon prior to admittance into The Academy.
3. Apply the knowledge and skills acquired from the following academic disciplines to ensure a broad range of rigorous high school course opportunities and exposure to post-secondary career possibilities:
   – Reading
   – Writing
   – Math
   – Science
   – Civics
4. Communicate effectively in English.
5. Explore, understand, and value the arts and athletics.

R-2: Citizenship

Student participants will value their personal power and responsibility to serve their communities to benefit our collective society as ethical citizens.

Students will:

1. Be inquisitive and informed leaders.
2. Understand and respect the freedoms, rights, and responsibilities of being a citizen of the United States.
3. Experience a greater awareness of our world by seeking and understanding multiple perspectives.
4. Be good stewards of the environment.
5. Be an advocate for self and others.
6. Engage in service to others.

R-3: Life Skills

Student participants will live healthy, satisfying, and productive lives.

Students will:

1. Understand and apply the principals of sound physical, mental, and emotional health.
2. Develop practical life skills to support self-sufficiency, including but not limited to:
   – Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills
   – Work habits and ethics
   – Time management
   – Personal financial competency
3. Develop and maintain positive relationships and demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively with diverse groups of people.
4. Have the resilience and self-confidence to deal effectively with life’s challenges.
5. Possess the skills to manage and resolve conflict.
6. Be intrinsically motivated to learn.
   – Know and understand their personal learning style and how to apply it.
   – Identify their personal power and passions to pursue their evolving talents and interests
   – Contribute to the common good of all by using their unique talents and interests.
   – Effectively use technology to access, communicate, and apply knowledge and to foster
   creativity.
7. Internalize and practice the core values of honesty, integrity, caring, trust, and respect.

R4: Fitness

All student participants will strive to achieve their own Fitness goals with guidance from coaches and trainers through various workout techniques and programming by abiding by a discipline regiment and consistent practice at a facility with proper resources to carryout the mission.

1. Nuance Strategy (The detailed study of the game or activity at hand)
2. IQ Development (Knowing the what and why of the activity, training and/or game)
3. Mental Toughness (To persevere through adversity)
4. Team Building Skills (Constructing with others in physical activity adversity)
5. Camaraderie (Building bonds and lifetime friendships)
6. Sport-Specific Fundamentals Training (Basic activity/sports development)
7. Cardio and Physical Fitness (Consistent physical & cardiovascular training regiments)

NYA was built on the belief that we must approach the education of all children and families with fresh eyes, and relationships must be built on a foundation of mutual respect between educators, parents and the community.

Our goal is to partner with schools and community-based learning centers, the arts, and athletic organizations to focus on issues that impact at-risk, under-served children in our community, including basic literacy skills , service learning, and holistic health.

NYA believes that by giving those who have been silenced a voice, we can shift the paradigm from one of desperation and failure to one of empowerment and success