Johnnie Jones III founded Make A Difference Youth Foundation in 1992 as a college bound organization for Chicago high school students. The organization was started to attempt to help inner-city youth gain an appreciation for education. Johnnie Jones was a baseball coach in the parks and noticed that many of the kids had limited academic skills. Outside of school, those kids had no where to go and nothing to do. They were not prepared academically to move on to the next level and were left to walk the streets.
Johnnie’s original concept was to build a program with a corporate structure to groom student leadership. Teen program participants served as officers and were taught to organize, plan and facilitate a meeting. This forum was the foundation to countless of youth preparing them for their college years and later corporate culture.
Founder Johnnie Jones prepared a proposal accepted by General Colin Powell through his PowerUp program, which resulted in a brand new computer lab, complete with free high-speed internet connections and service for the foundation. In addition to enabling the PowerUp initiative, this computer lab was instrumental to the foundation’s after-school tutoring programs.
Johnnie Jones also cultivated a partnership with People Magazine, to sponsor Make A Difference Youth Foundation as a participant in the Digital Heroes Campaign. Digital Heroes linked high profile civic leaders and celebrities, such as the late Gregory Hines, as “pen pals” to the teens participating in the eMentoring program. The Digital Heroes Campaign was the first in a series of initiatives the foundation has administered to help promote interest in technology.
Today, Make A Difference Youth Foundation has two offices. Since 1992, over 70% of the students participating in the organization's college bound program have graduated from college with four-year degrees or are currently attending college. Johnnie Jones continues to work untiringly to provide Chicago area youth with educational and technical opportunities to develop our professionals of tomorrow.
Blacks Gone Geek salutes Johnnie Jones III and his service to the community.
About Make a Difference Youth Foundation
Make A Difference Youth Foundation - Provides technology-oriented after school tutoring and extracurricular programs for elementary students and college prep for high school students from across Chicago. More than 150 students are served each week. Please visit our website at www.makeadifferenceyf.org.
About The Programs
Elementary school programs include after-school tutoring, summer technology camp, a stock market program and a children's book club. High school programs include ACT preparation classes, college trips, live college videoconferences, career speakers and job shadowing, youth led weekly planning sessions, educational workshops and retreats, community service projects, an eMentoring program, an e-tutoring Program, and a teen book club. Every high school student participating in the college bound program has been accepted to college for fourteen straight years with over 65% of those students currently in college or recipients of a four-year college degree.