Good Bye Summer.  Hello Opportunity.

While it’s still mid-summer, that backpack, dorm room, organizing to get out the door on time for school feeling is in the air. I want to hold on to summer as long as I can, but I know that warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think of carefree days and kickback summer nights will soon end. And it seems like it ends a little bit sooner each year, but maybe it’s just me.

This time of the year never fails to present new opportunities for growth, change, and reinvention. However you grab hold of opportunity, seize it and don’t let it go. Opportunity is a slippery character and if you don’t have a firm grip, it will slip away. Don’t think just because you no longer carry a backpack or buy school clothes that you’re done with your education. There’s always something new to learn and learning is what keeps the mind sharp.

CAAGKC offers several educational opportunities for youth, as well as adults to take advantage of and we encourage you to explore all that we have to offer. Our summer Freedom School has ended, but we’ll be back next year with more exciting books to read and field trips to take. High school students can look forward to the P.A.V.E. program which operates all year long, preparing students for college or a career. And speaking of careers, we offer occupational training with professional certifications in the healthcare and warehouse logistics fields. Even if it’s been a while since you’ve been in school, we offer several workshops for financial literacy, healthy living, and life management.

Just like exercise benefits the body, learning benefits your life, even if you simply learn not to make the same mistakes twice. The lack of education costs you, whether it be formal or informal. We’re preparing today’s youth for jobs of the future and empowering them to not just dream, but to awake and achieve. We’re teaching them life skills to give them a great start and the hope of a lasting legacy for generations to come.

Opportunity doesn’t knock as often as we get older and sometimes we have to look a little closer because opportunity has also changed with time, but the eyes of opportunity still possess that flicker of hope. Finding a new job, getting out of debt, restoring health, or buying a home may still be on your list of things to accomplish or you just want a do-over. We can help with do-overs, and we do it tuition-free.

New schools, new friends, new neighborhoods, new starts, a lot can happen in a summer. So before you plan that last summer getaway, attend the last backyard barbecue, or hear the ice cream truck’s jingle for the last time, give us a call and find out how you can start the new school year off right.

Best regards,

Clifton Campbell
Executive Director & CEO