As the school year begins, the IRC in Elizabeth's Education & Learning Supervisor reflects on this year's summer youth programming success.

As part of the IRC’s national Refugee Voices initiative, the IRC in Atlanta partnered with local Refugee Voice and IRC Youth Futures program alum, Nuam San, to plan and host an Open Mic night on the 4th of July, in partnership with Mayor Ted Terry and the City of Clarkston.

Through our partnership with FoodCorps—part of the AmeriCorps service network—the IRC in Atlanta has been able to expand our gardening and nutrition education programming into two DeKalb County elementary schools. Our incredible 2020-21 FoodCorps service member, Laura Diaz-Villaquiran, adapted quickly to virtual teaching and provides culturally appropriate, garden-based lessons to over 150 DeKalb County K-3 students.

The IRC in Atlanta is extremely grateful for our continued partnership with Georgia Tech University student group, Clarkston Futures (formerly Books Not Bombs) who have generously donated their time to support our Youth Futures afterschool program for several years. The pandemic and our subsequent pivot to virtual programming was no barrier for our dedicated Georgia Tech students, who enthusiastically adapted their STEM programming and tutoring support to meet the needs of Clarkston High School students.