Emerald Youth Foundation Launches "The Time Is Now" Campaign
Knoxville, Tenn. – Emerald Youth Foundation (EYF) today announced the launch of The Time Is Now campaign, focused on three key areas: raising the organization’s visibility and awareness, recruiting the staff and volunteers needed to serve young people engaging with the ministry, and securing the financial resources required to sustain ongoing operations and growth opportunities. EYF announced the public launch of the initiative during the foundation’s annual prayer and fundraising breakfast, which brought together nearly 2,000 supporters at the Knoxville Expo Center.
“Several years ago, we launched the Imagine A City initiative where we invited the community to imagine a Knoxville where every child, in every neighborhood had the opportunity for a full life,” said EYF president and CEO Steve Diggs. “Today, we aren’t just imagining this, but have actually seen it become a reality in pockets across our city. Moving forward, the challenge before us will be seeing this at scale, with even larger numbers of young people in urban neighborhoods across the city.”
Among other initiatives, The Time Is Now campaign will allow EYF to invest in neighborhood youth and family ministry programs, expanding the organization’s footprint in east and south Knoxville.
“Our organization’s mission is to raise up a large number of urban youth to love Jesus Christ and become effective leaders working to renew their communities,” said Dr. Keith Gray, chair of EYF’s Board of Trustees. “While we engage thousands of young people each year, our goal is to annually produce 200 promising, Godly leaders for Knoxville, which would be roughly 20% of those graduating high school from city neighborhoods. We believe that this can create a critical tipping point for our city.”
“To do this, we are going to need the community’s help,” said Jon Lawler, member of the EYF Board of Trustees and campaign chairman. “Our aim with this campaign is to ensure EYF’s sustainability for years to come while simultaneously supporting existing programs and operations. This is a tall order, but I truly believe that if any city can do this, it’s Knoxville.
“I’m more optimistic about the future of Emerald Youth Foundation and the future of our city’s young people than I have ever been,” said Lawler.
On an ongoing basis, Emerald Youth monitors key metrics and outcomes through its Youth Development Pipeline. Recent key outcomes from Emerald’s focus areas of faith, learning, and health include the following:
Nearly 3,000 total youth engaged
A greater proportion of Emerald Youth are engaged in a faith journey than their peers with over 50,000 discipleship encounters recorded in 2022.
With 72% of young adults surveyed who enrolled in a college or university, young people engaged with Emerald Youth are outpacing the Knox County and statewide average. This already exceeds our community’s goal of reaching a 70% college going rate for Knox County students by 2024, and it also significantly exceeds the college going rate for Knoxville’s urban high schools, which is less than 45%.
Elementary and middle school participants in EY’s afterschool program outpaced their peers in the urban Knoxville elementary and middle schools in both reading and math outcomes.
Emerald Academy’s Black scholars, as well as its economically disadvantaged scholars, outperformed their 3rd – 8th grade peers in Knox County and all other major metropolitan districts in Tennessee in both reading and math. The school remains the top performing urban middle school in Knoxville.
In partnership with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Emerald Youth offers ten sports and over 150 teams.
Opening the Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex at Lonsdale has resulted in (a) acceleration of youth outcomes, and (b) transforming a blighted city block into a safer, healthier community. The facility includes a health center, operated by Cherokee Health and UT Medical Center, which has logged well over 13,000 visits since opening in 2020.
For more information on how to be involved with The Time Is Now campaign or Emerald Youth, visit thetimeisnowemerald.org or follow @EmeraldYouth on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.