The Youth Talk United Vision and Mission
“My name is Erica Perry, and I am the founder and executive director of Youth Talk United Mentoring Program. My overall goal and aim is to make sure every young adult and youth have guidance and support to reach their full potential. Our vision at Youth Talk United is that young people in Birmingham, Alabama are confident and capable to transition successfully into adulthood. In addition, our mission is to help improve the quality of life outcome of youth aged 10 to 24 by providing mentorship, workshops, and enrichment activities.
Our main program, Empowering Youth, is designed to help our youth with a holistic approach to express themselves in a positive way and manage their emotions. We are here, we are in the community, and we are here to stay, so let's make an impact together.”
Connect with Changemaker
Erika Perry
Excited About Changemakers
Hey, hey, everyone. I am so excited to be here. International Women's Month, and you guys are killing it. I love it. I'm excited. My heart beat, though, because I'm the youngest one, and you guys are doing an amazing job. So it really pushed me. As the others spoke, being in this program helped me with my knowledge and confidence. And now even coming behind them, even more confidence. Like, yes, I'm in the right room. All of it. So, so excited about that.
About Youth Talk United
Youth Talk United is a mentoring program, which initially started with me just being a servant. I always wanted to help people. Went into social work from social work. Got into a non-profit. I was like, wow, they're doing great. But it's so many holes that I can fill to make it better. And like many non-profits, went into negative several times because I wanted to do everything myself. Had been doing everything on my own. And then finally said, OK, I want to invest and started getting help. And from there, we got a couple of grants and things. But I still just knew I didn't have the knowledge. One of my board members met, actually on Zoom, Charlene told us about it, spoke with her. Everything has just transitioned of my thought frame of a non-profit, of the board, how everything should look. I'm just so excited for the future now of the organization.
Future Leaders
We have the future leaders. That's why we have the older group that are 18 to 24. Because a lot of them go off to college and careers. And we noticed that they really suffer at that time of mental health and anxiety. So we have those babies. We don't let them go. They actually come back and mentor our younger ones, as well, too. During the summer, as she said, we have summer activities where they come in and they put on their own summer camp for the younger kids. Our kids are from 10 to 24. When we start early talking about those things and educating, empowering, and encouraging them through that social-emotional learning, community service, as well as the mental health piece.
Mentorship Through Sports
We said, hey, we're going to mentor through sports. So this year, we're actually partnering with a local basketball league. So they will be doing things of a summer camp with our kids. And the focus is for them to come play basketball. But we give that opportunity to do mentorship, as well as focus on their mental health.
A Place of Their Own
And we just got an actual place for our babies to be for a whole year. So we have a home, which we call. So that is huge for us, too. When the pandemic hit, a place where we was at so much went on. So now we have a place of home where our kids meet there. So we're setting up, too, with things for the summer for them to be able to come in and get that educational service, as well as get informed about different things from entrepreneurship and college readiness. So we have a lot. And we're excited about it because we know being a part of this is just going to really push us to the next level.