Our Mission
The mission of Help Yourself is to change the lives of disadvantaged grade-school children through the creation of after-school academies on college campuses. Over the past four decades, colleges have often reached out to disadvantaged high school students. High school, however, is too late for those at-risk. By then, most of these children will have seen their dreams drift by and lost interest.
For most children, college is an expectation. For those at-risk, it is an elusive dream. The difference, all too often, comes down to support. In America, far too many children live in poverty. Few will ever gain the knowledge or the skills to attend college.
Our goal is to have Help Yourself academy children, once considered possible drop-outs, graduate proudly from high school and enter college.
We gauge their progress carefully through standardized tests, gather critical data, and continuously evaluate the program to ensure we are restoring hope and securing the futures of impoverished children.
In short, we refuse to allow poverty to rob these children of their dreams. Instead, we help them to reach out, catch those drifting dreams, and turn them into reality.
Children will experience immediate benefits by:
- Adopting good study habits and developing new interests and skills
- Having passionate and knowledgeable teachers preparing them for the rigors of school
- Feeling the joy of increased confidence and self-respect as their school performances improve
- Thinking of themselves as children with a future — and expecting college to be part of that future