Year Up Atlanta Hosts Opportunity Breakfast and Announces New Board Chair, Lee W. Crump
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) November 09, 2015 -- Celebrating six years of its proven approach to closing the Opportunity Divide, the job training non-profit Year Up Atlanta will host its annual Opportunity Breakfast tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM at 103 West in Atlanta. More than 200 guests are expected to attend, including representatives from Year Up Atlanta, corporate partners Rollins, AT&T, Cox Enterprises, Auto Trader, EnCompass, General Electric, CareerBuilder, Federal Reserve Bank, Southern Company and more.
The Opportunity Breakfast marks the successful end of Year Up Atlanta’s “Stepping Up to Opportunity” campaign, which raised $5.7 million in two years and has helped the program grow and expand its impact in Atlanta. The campaign was led by Belinda Stubblefield, Year Up Atlanta’s former Executive Director and current National Site Director; Cecil D. Conlee, Chairman and CEO of CGR Advisors; Michael Kay, Past Chair, Community Foundation of Atlanta; Kim Williams, Year Up Atlanta’s current Executive Director; and Year Up Atlanta Board Chair Kevin Salwen. Conlee and Kay served as the campaign co-chairs, partnering with the local Atlanta Board Members: Archie Jones, Vice Chair; Bruce Clayton, Jackie Breiter, Lee Crump, Kweku Forstall, Jelissa Lee, Edwin Marcial, Sig Mosley, Larry Panatera and Chris Walters.
At the breakfast, Year Up Atlanta will welcome Lee W. Crump as its new Board Chair.
“We’re thrilled to announce Lee as the new Board Chair,” said Williams, who was named Year Up Atlanta’s Executive Director in April 2015. “His commitment to helping our fabulous young adults reach their full potential, as well as his 35 years of experience in IT, will enable Year Up Atlanta to continue closing the Opportunity Divide for motivated, talented young adults by preparing them for careers in growing fields like quality assurance and business operations.”
Crump is the CIO and Group Vice President of Business Support for Rollins, Inc. In 2012, Crump was named Georgia CIO of the Year (Global Division) by the GeorgiaCIO Association. He is a member of the Board of Directors for PowerMyLearning, and is a volunteer and mentor for Pathbuilders Achieva, and at Year Up Atlanta.
Rollins, Inc. has partnered with Year Up Atlanta since 2012, and has sponsored 41 Year Up Atlanta Interns and hired 17 graduates of the program. Rollins, based in Atlanta, is the parent company of Orkin Pest Control and has more than two million customers around the world.
“The Opportunity Breakfast highlights the accomplishments of Year Up Atlanta and its supporters in helping our young adults enter great professional careers at top local businesses in need of skilled talent,” said Crump, who received the Year Up Urban Empowerment Award from Year Up Atlanta in 2013.
The event will also feature remarks from Conlee, who helped launch the site in 2009 and served as Year Up Atlanta’s founding Board Chair, as well as from Year Up Atlanta students and alumni on how the program has changed their lives.
In the past two years, Year Up Atlanta has grown by more than 50 percent to serve 250 students annually. The program provides young adults (ages 18-24, without college degrees) with six months of technical, professional and communication skills training followed by a six-month internship at a corporate partner firm. Ninety-three percent of Year Up Atlanta’s most recent graduating class was employed in an IT-related field or attending college full-time within four months of completing the year-long program, with an average starting salary of $36,000/year. Learn more about Year Up Atlanta by following us on Twitter @YearUpAtlanta and on Facebook.
About Year Up Inc.
Year Up's mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education. Year Up achieves this mission through a high support, high expectation model that combines marketable job skills, stipends, internships and college credits. Its holistic approach focuses on students' professional and personal development to place these young adults on a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Year Up currently serves more than 2,700 students a year at sites in Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Jacksonville, the National Capital Region, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay Area, and South Florida. To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org or http://www.youtube.com/yearupinc.
Roberto Zeledon, Year Up, http://www.yearup.org, +1 857-305-9995, [email protected]
Share this article