Youth programs

current programs

Bayside H.O.Y.A.S. are committed to building a strong community that can support the next generation as they grow, learn and thrive. Our current initiatives are focused on broad-scale, community-wide events, outreach, and civic engagement in Maryland’s Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties, a responsive shift in our programs that reflect the changing needs of our community’s youth and young adults.

Nourishing Minds

The Nourishing Minds program is a unique collaboration between Modern Stone Age Kitchen, the Bayside H.O.Y.A.S., Inc. and Kent County Middle School focused on supporting the health and nutrition of Kent County Middle School students and their families. The program will identify 15 incoming 6th-grade families at Kent County Middle School and work with these families over the summer,providing hands-on classes that they can attend in-person or virtually. The 15 families participating will each receive scratch-made, healthy food delivered from the Nourishing Minds program that correlates to the lessons.

Community Garden:

In 2022, Bayside H.O.Y.A.S. received a grant from Mid-Shore Health Improvement Coalition to develop a community garden. The garden will help to promote nutrition,teambuilding, and outdoors activity for particpants, and will provide fresh produce for the local community to supplement a healthy, wholesome diet.

Stemming from a larger award from the Maryland Department of Health, the funds are earmarked to support programs that provide access to healthy foods in Caroline, Dorchester and Kent Counties. The three counties rank among the five Maryland counties with the highest adult obesity rates, and residents overall have higher poverty rates, less access to healthy foods and exercise opportunities, lower rates of physical activity, and higher rates of diabetes than Maryland.

H.O.Y.A.S. C.P.I.P College Prep program:

College Preparation Intervention Program (CPIP) involves academic preparation, college and career readiness, parental/caregiver development, and leadership skills. The program, funded by a grant from the Maryland Higher Education Commission, will give Kent County Middle School students the academic and social tools they will need to navigate the road to college readiness. This joint venture will also help caregivers identify and develop the skills they’ll need to assist their students through the process.

Reconnect for Life:

A program designed to help youth between the ages of 16 and 24 get out of the rut of poverty, unemployment and other factors that have defined them as “high risk.”

Junior H.O.Y.A.S:

This program will promote team building and empathy by the action or process of causing a group of students to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation. This program will also increase leadership development activities that makes students become better leaders.