Dr. Kemp gives Youth Life students and families a reason to smile.

Dr. Phillip Kemp, DDS, Brentwood, Tennessee dentist at Kemp Dental, will be performing free dental care to our students and their families at YLLC-Kirkpatrick on April 21st through his Hope Smiles initiative.  Hope Smiles, a nonprofit, Christian organization, aims to “help individuals receive restorative and cosmetic dental work at little or no cost, made possible by community and private financial support, donated materials and volunteer dental professionals.”  Hope Smiles also gives dental students, soon to be dentists, the opportunity to work with his team.  Although this care will be provided, he hopes that his efforts will reflect on a focus for restoration and love of students and families.

Knowing Yolanda Shields,  CEO of Youth Life Learning Centers, for over fifteen years, first as a patient and now as a friend, Dr. Kemp saw a need among YLLC’s family members and students.  Taking notice of what our organization provides, he believes that we lead hope and change within the at-risk environments served at Youth Life.

“Dentistry is an unmet need in our country,” says Dr. Kemp. “Unfortunately, there are so many who experience pain and discomfort with no hope for relief. Hope Smiles is our small part of bringing a glimpse of hope to a situation that can often feel hopeless. …The need is so great. One of the number one reasons that kids miss school is due to dental pain. This breaks my heart and should not be the case. Also, not to be able to confidently smile significantly effects one’s self-esteem and can also prevent someone from securing employment. The name, Hope Smiles, was chosen because of just like it sounds, Hope Smiles. When someone has hope, he or she cannot help but smile. We love being able to help people smile. We love to share hope.”

When he reflects on lives changed, Dr. Kemp recalls a particular girl, who at one time struggled with an eating disorder.  She felt that God was able to pull her out of these times to find a new sense of peace and love.  Each time the girl looked in the mirror, however, she was reminded of this past struggle by the look of her teeth, which had eroded away.  After transforming her teeth, her new smile brought not only a physical healing, but also an emotional one by erasing a painful reminder.

Dr. Kemp wants to tell all of the students served at Youth Life Learning Centers to never give up and trust God in all that they do.  The staff and YLLC students and families members would like to give him a special thank you for his efforts that will not just provide smiles but a sense of restoration, hope and love.

YLLC students take on learning projects in celebration of Black History Month

During Black History Month, Youth Life students, most of whom are African-American, were eager to learn about their history.  The different centers set up various events throughout the month that they would like to share with Youth Life supporters.

• History of Hip-Hop at Belmont University was a blast last night, as forty YLLC students were in attendance.  The event included freestyle cypher, “A7” on the wheels of steel, graffiti designs, b-boy showcase, a performance by the Children of 18th Avenue Family Enrichment Center, and more.
• YLLC-Kirkpatrick took a field trip to meet up with YLLC-Memphis.  Together, the two groups went on a field trip to The National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel and the assassination site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• YLLC-Riverchase teen students collaborated to create one poster board of important, historical and modern African-American figures including Lonnie Johnson, the inventor of the Super Soaker!
• The older students at YLLC-Easley were given options to either (a) do a personal outline of their family history, (b) do a timeline of the Civil Rights Movement, or (c) do a biography on a famous, historical African-American figure
• At YLLC-West the 2nd through 4th grade class did collages on a subject of their choosing.  Below is a picture of Diana Ochoa, who chose to do her project on The Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to sit in the back of a bus.  Today, Barack Obama is the first African-American to hold the title of President of the United States of America.  We hope YLLC students not only learned about figures from the past and African-American history, but we also want them to know that even in their at-risk communities, they have the same potential as these role models if they stay focused, study hard and stay in school.

To see  our calendar for Black History Month, visit the events page at www.yllc.org.

Visit our Facebook page to see more pictures from how we celebrated Black History Month.