A new approach to youth success: 10-year volunteer families

Baltimore, Maryland, is historically one of the most violent and impoverished cities in the country. There, only 6% of kids with less than a 1.0 GPA are likely to graduate in 4 years.

Donyae Wyatt, a high school student in Baltimore, MD, had been dealt a rough hand. As a teenager, Donyae lost his grandmother and grandfather — his legal guardians — and quickly started slipping in school. It looked like he wasn’t going to graduate.

Thankfully, around that time he became part of a “Thread Family” who gave him the additional support he needed to succeed in school and in life.

Thread is a Baltimore-based nonprofit created in 2004 by a husband and wife team, Sarah and Ryan Hemminger. Thread brings together members of the community so that they can create a support network — like a family — for Donyae and other Baltimore students.