YES! INSTRUCTOR TOOL BOX

OUR HISTORY

Youth Enrichment services is the brainchild of of founder and director. Samara Michelle began dancing at the age of 12 at a local non-profit dance school in the inner city of Detroit. The dance school offered a teen mentoring program that gave her the opportunity to learn skills outside of the dance class such as telephone etiquette, professionalism, customer service and teaching skills. Samara excelled in dance and school as a result. She left Detroit at the age of 18 to pursue a career in teaching. With a strong desire to give back, Ms Michelle took a position as the life skills instructor at an Alternative school in Atlanta. Samara became frustrated with the increasing cuts in the same arts education that allowed her to excel when she was a student.

In January 2004, Samara Michelle created Journey Performing Arts Center. The program quickly grew with a performing company, outreach program, after school program and studio. After the 2008 economic recession, Journey struggled to stay a float and downsized to an outreach only program. 

Youth Enrichment Services was born in 2016, modeled after Journey's very successful community outreach program. YES! is one hundred percent mobile program, that offers the arts and sports programs in after school programs and daycares. YES aims to be affordable and accessible offering programs where children naturally are throughout the day. Samara Michelle's vision is to have the quality of formal programs in a recreational setting. 

In 2022, YES! expanded its programs to Detroit, MI. YES currently serves over 1000 kids per week