Yepaw focuses on the development of youth in the akron area. Yepaw conducts three distinct activities that contribute to leadership development: yepaw week, yepaw 365, and yepaw institute. The fundamental goal of each of the three programs is to use the arts and intensive skills training to improve youth outcomes and promote leadership development.

Arts & Culture , Performing Arts

Yepaw's summer program is an intensive one week experience using the arts as a means to teach excellence in all areas of life. The experience concludes with a community performance highlighting skills learned in 16 arts-based areas. Historically, 250-320 youth between the ages of 12 and 21 have participated in the dynamic week-long program and 1,500-3,000 people have attended the closing concert. Summer workshop goals include developing knowledge and enjoyment of the arts, acquistion of key arts performance skills, and, most fundamentally, encouraging youth to make positive choices by building their self-confidence and hope for the future. yepaw 365 provides intensive leadership development and academic enrichment to inspire middle and high school students to excel in the classroom and in community. The program exposes students to cutting edge arts engagement programs with a focus on practical and personal skills development. The primary goal is to develop a cadre of young minority leaders that are trained and ready to serve in leadership roles throughout our local schools and community. yepaw institute is a very popular after-school arts enrichment program that reaches youth in the greater akron area through partnerships with the akron public schools and the cascade village housing development. The institute provides quality group instruction in dance, mime, visual arts, piano and drumline for youth who would not otherwise be able to participate in such activities. wepaw: the youth excellence performing arts workshop now provides training in the arts for students ages 4-11 in our wepaw experience. The students attend our annual week intensive for half day sessions that introduce them to dance, drum line and choral music. They are presented in concert one evening during the week and also perform a special selection for the akron community in the yepaw closing concert. Mini-yepaw: allows students to experience a "taste" of our full-week intensive programing. A modified team brings selected classes to an organization with the purpose of encouraging youth, through the arts, to pursue lifestyles of excellence. A mini-yepaw consists of a minimum of one full day of workshop containing several disciplines and a closing concert to present the materials the students have learned.