Young & Established supports youth through mentorship
What started as one college student mentoring 11 kids has grown into a community organization serving youth across six Evansville schools. Read how founder Courtney Johnson is working to create opportunities and support for local youth.
When Courtney Johnson founded the nonprofit Young and Established (Y&E), it began with a simple but ambitious decision: mentoring 11 kids at once. At the time, Johnson was balancing a full-time college course load and two jobs, but the experience reflected the work ethic, dedication, and commitment to service that would become central to the organization’s mission.
Young and Established (Y&E) has been supporting and empowering Evansville’s youth since 2013. It offers a wide range of various programs to help meet the needs of the community and its youth. This includes weekly drives to give away essential items, free monthly haircuts, free cooking classes, free automotive lessons, and many more.
Johnson was inspired to begin mentoring after seeing the violence affecting Evansville. He was also driven by what he noticed in the resources available to children: many kids who “looked like me,” he said, were being left out.
Johnson believes the biggest challenge that youth are facing today is guidance. “A lot of our young people are just lost and really don’t know what direction to go in,” he said. Because of this, he wants the Y&E Community Center to be a safe, supportive, and educational haven for kids, and remain that way as they go into adulthood. “Young and Established will always be a part of whatever they do,” he says.
The organization mentors kids grade 6-12 and has expanded to six different schools: Plaza Park Middle School, McGary Middle School, Benjamin Bosse High School, Washington Middle School, Harrison High School, and Glenwood Leadership Academy.
One of Johnson’s favorite parts about Y&E has been watching the kids he serves grow into themselves. He describes it as “seeing what you started have a small part… [in helping] with whatever they decide to do in life.”
Their next event will be a Backpack Drive, where Y&E will distribute backpacks and school supplies from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 2 at the Y&E Community Center.
Donate and/or sign up to volunteer at youngandestablished.com.
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