Cultivating Youth

Cultivating Youth (CY) is a 501c(3) that works to eliminate childhood trauma, restore healing, reduce obesity, prevent violence, and minimize recidivism in New Orleans youth ages 8-24 through physical activity, therapy, education, mentorship, transportation, and housing.

How We Serve
After School: Free after school-enrichment program geared towards 8-12 year olds. Operate Monday - Thursday from 3:30pm - 6:00pm. Students complete homework/studying with Tulane University students on-site, actively work with mentors, participate in physical fitness activities or athletic training, individual counceling with a licensed therapist and will receive a free meal daily.

Mentoring: Geared towards 13-18 year old youth. We require a check-in, at minimum, once a week with mentors to provide updates on their improvement plans that are curated to their specific needs and/or to workout, receive tutoring and participate in enrichment activities.

Summer Enrichment: Enroll youth ages 8-12 in the community with discovering a healthy lifestyle coupled with physical fitness, literacy, mental wellness, life skills, culinary lessons, entrepreneurship, different career exploration breakouts, a summer trip & more!

Work-Study Mentee: Allow teens 13-15 who are CY mentees to help with the programs and provide them with a stipend. This allows youth to make some money and assists CY with programming while also being able to pour into youth.

Summer Jobs: hire teen and young adults (16-24) to work during the Summer Enrichment program to teach, connect and peer mentor youth.

Youth Incarceration: Work with the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center (Youth Study). Go into the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center 2 days per week to provide boxing, cardio fitness, physical activities, nutrition education and mentoring. The mentoring approach focuses on restoration, advocacy and future planning. 

Family to Prison Pipeline: Provides relationship restoration support, propose bills that will positively effect those incarcerated and their loved ones, advocate for youth and parents that need support navigating the legal system, etc.

Transition Housing: Cultivating Youth Transition Home provides a safe, structured, and supportive environment for formerly incarcerated individuals who are reentering the community. The home’s mission is to promote successful reintegration, reduce recidivism, and support residents in achieving stability through employment, education, and life skills development. The program focuses on building independence while offering 24-hour supervision and access to supportive care services.

Transportation Access: With the recent purchase of a passenger van, we now provide safe and reliable transportation, removing a key barrier to participation for many families. 

Testimonials

"He (Coach Mack) have helped prepared me for college. The early mornings, the late nights, the long days at practice, when you get mentally tired that's when that hard work and dedication comes through. Today we talk about mental health, mental health is a big thing. Not just in basebal but in life and general. Having good mental health will help you sleep better, live better and perform better!" Will Spears Jr. expressed the impact of working with Cultivating Youth and Coach Mack.