Aspire

📣🔑 BIG NEWS FOR OLDER YOUTH IN OUR COMMUNITY!

We're excited to announce two new initiatives designed to help young people build leadership skills, prepare for careers, and overcome barriers that stand between them and their future. 🤩

This summer, Aspire For Greatness is launching:

🔹 Aspire Keys to the Future – a leadership and workforce development program that equips youth with leadership skills, financial literacy, workforce readiness, and a pathway toward reliable transportation. Helping older youth learn to thrive. 👏

🔹 Exploring Career Connections in STEM (EC2) – a paid work experience opportunity where local youth ages 16–21 facilitate STEM activities for younger students while building their own resumes and career skills. 👏

These programs are possible thanks to support from Fremont Area United Way, Beyond School Bells, Fremont Area Community Foundation, community partners, and caring adults who believe in the next generation. 💖

We believe our community's future workforce is sitting in today's classrooms.

Let's invest in them together!

Thank you Prusias for having the girls out for a lake day! 🤩🎣🌞💦

What a blessing. ❤️

A constant struggle at Aspire is that there are more youth that want to attend our program than we have capacity to serve due to funding. 😢

We somehow made it through last school year with just myself and Brian until the end of the year when Salvation Army stepped up to help. We were thankful for Amy V being our substitute if one of us had to be gone. 💖

This summer is no exception: still more youth to serve than we have the capacity for. However, I have a little space now to do my actual job which is in part to thank all of you who have made Aspire possible!

So even though this is be-lated, a huge thank you to everyone who supported Aspire through the Fremont Area Big Give!!!

Because of your support, youth in our community have access to caring adults, meaningful opportunities, and the encouragement they need to choose hope, live with purpose, and build brighter futures. 💖💖💖

Stay tuned for more frequent posts while I multi-task my actual job with filling in the gaps in our program so we can serve as many youth as possible. 🙂

(The posts will be exciting so stay tuned) 🤩

I'm "outside the theater support" for the Aspire youth and rest of the staff inside watching a movie. 😆

It's about a bajillion degrees outside and movies are $5 on Tuesdays and Nate Bargatze is hilarious. Wins all around. Plus I get to enjoy one of my favorite meals while I'm securing the perimeter. 😉

Don't worry, I'm working too! 🤪

Last day of school + last day of our 5th year of providing after school programs + going away party for one of the youth who is moving.

✔️snacks
✔️cake
✔️cups
✔️lunch

Let's go!

POV- average teen screen time: 😬 a lot.

Time spent talking to a caring adult?
Not nearly enough.

At Aspire, we compete with:
📱 phones
🎮 games
📺 endless scrolling

And somehow…connection and creativity still wins. 👏👏👏

💬 Turns out, being known matters more than notifications.

**full disclosure: although I surely could have captured the teens in their natural environment (my life's dream was to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist after all) I did in fact ask the youth in the first picture to sit there on their phones so I could use that picture for this screen time post 🤪

Somewhere along the way society decided teenagers are “too old” for playgrounds.

But after sitting in desks for 8 hours:
Their bodies still need movement.
Their minds still need adventure.
Their hearts still need joy.

Turns out teenagers still like to climb things 😜

Maybe what they really need…
are spaces designed FOR them.

👀 Imagine a safe place where teens could:
🛹 skate
🧗 climb
🤸 move
🎤 connect
🍕 hang out
💬 belong

We’re dreaming a little these days.

And honestly?
We think Fremont’s teens deserve it.

If you know me (Kristen) you know I like words. Like, I like them a lot. But sometimes I get caught up in my ADHD analysis paralysis and it feels like I can't find the right words for the situation and I get stuck.

This picture is one of those times! So go back in time with me to April 1st when the King of Kings Fremont campus presented us with a check for $20,000 as part of King of Kings All In giving campaign. 💖💖💖

The reason it's so hard to come up with words for how grateful we are is because KOK Fremont (formally Good Shepherd Lutheran church) has been so impactful in our ministry. From being willing to host our program at their facility at our inception, to donating food, hygiene items, supplies, etc, to supporting us financially, to inviting us to share with their congregation who we are, and the list goes on.

The support from the church as a whole as well as individual members of the congregation has been so amazing that it's hard to put words to our gratefulness.

So, for lack of the proper eloquent words to fully express our thankfulness, please know we are incredibly grateful for this $20,000 donation as well as all the other big and small ways you have supported us!!!!!! 💖

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