Apprentice of Peace Youth Organization
Developing students through a whole-person approach by integrating mentoring, enrichments, and career pathway programs.
Collaboration is essential to tackling today’s public health challenges — because no single organization or sector can do it alone. This is why relationship building and partnerships are at the heart of our work to support healthier communities. In this ongoing series, we spotlight the individuals, organizations, and collaboratives that make up Trailhead’s network of partners, sharing their impact in their own words.
Who do you or your organization serve?
Apprentice for Peace primarily uses Tai Chi to engage young people, families, and community members in wellness. Our mentorship and peer support services also provide community resource navigation and career pathway support, focusing on trade skill training and certification. This is to fulfill our approach of meeting students (mostly middle and high school students who already attend alternative schooling) where they are and identify areas where they could use a thought partner to explore and build confidence around their personal and professional goals.
Which communities or regions do you support?
AOPYO serves the Denver Metro Area of Denver, Aurora, Jefferson County, and Brighton.
What’s important about this work for your community?
Bottom line: representation is important. It’s hard to picture that you can achieve something if no one you know has done it before. Folks that have been in the community and have experience in the community recognize the need to provide these resources and make them more accessible. Especially in the current economic climate in Denver, it’s crucial to ensure that young people have the skills needed to take care of themselves and their families. We hope to impact the mindset of young people by building community and support networks to give them hope, reduce community and youth violence, combat substance abuse, and showcase that they can be successful.
How can people support your work or get involved?
You can get involved by volunteering to support students through mentorship or by helping to spread the word at our events. We are also focused on building our donor base, and any contributions in these areas would be greatly appreciated.
If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please email Pos Ryant at pos@aopyo.org.
Through fiscal sponsorship, how have you been able to increase your impact? Or how has your work changed or evolved without having to deal with administrative burdens?
Trailhead’s support has been a huge help in allowing us to actually focus on the work. Nonprofit work often begins with a strong desire to make a community impact, but administrative tasks can quickly consume the time and energy needed to-do’s. A lot of folks aren’t familiar with fiscal sponsorship or how it works, but our association with Trailhead has been invaluable, especially when it comes to grant applications. This partnership has allowed us to direct our attention to the community on a day-to-day basis, without being bogged down by other burdens.