FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #21 Rebuilding the Village: How GAD Youth Center Supports Teens
What happens when childcare ends at age 12? For most families, it creates a critical supervision gap during the most challenging years of adolescence. Meet Arline Gause, the visionary behind GAD Youth Center, who's tackling this problem head-on in Spotsylvania County.
After 22 years as a military spouse with 13 relocations, Arline witnessed firsthand how difficult transitions impact young people. Watching her children struggle with new schools, curriculum differences, and social challenges taught her the importance of creating a supportive community. "It was the village we created and surrounded them with that helped them become who and what they are today," Arline explains. This experience birthed GAD's mission: rebuilding and redefining the village needed to raise the next generation.
GAD Youth Center serves adolescents aged 12-16 through six innovative programs: academic support, college prep, career assessment, culinary skills, life training, and health/wellness. Unlike typical recreational centers, GAD helps youth develop individualized plans for their futures, connecting them with job shadowing opportunities and teaching essential life skills. While searching for a permanent location, GAD has partnered with Hope Presbyterian Church to launch summer workshops running Wednesdays from June 11th through July 23rd. These pilot programs will feature inspiring speakers, meals, and transportation assistance.
For parents concerned about cost, structure, or logistics, GAD has thoughtfully addressed these challenges. The center plans to become an official school bus stop once permanently established, solving transportation worries for working parents. Ready to support this vital community resource? Visit www.gad-youth.com to learn more, register for summer programs, or volunteer your time and talents to help build the village our youth desperately need.
Arline Gause
GAD Youth Center
540-223-4040
agause@gad-youth.com
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we feature the stories of local legends in the Fredericksburg area. Today we'll be hearing from local legend Arline Goss of GAD Youth Center. Arline, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Dori. I'm so excited to be here and have this opportunity to share more about our center.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to learning more. So let's dive in. Let's start by sharing with the listeners a little bit about your business.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, first thing, people always ask me what does GAD stand for?
Speaker 3:And that stands for Generations in the Year of Our Lord, but that's a lot in a mouthful, so we just say GAD for short.
Speaker 3:We're a faith-based, non-profit youth center coming to Spotsy County and people are probably wondering wait a minute, we have child care, after school programs and summer camp. Why do we need a youth center when during many families would be surprised to know that in our country, childcare, after school programs and summer camps stop accepting youth once they turn age 12. And this is leaving our youth ages 12 through 16 without a safe haven during non-school hours. And this is a critical transitional stage for this age group and many of them are struggling to navigate this age of transition. And when we look at law enforcement reports, it clearly shows that it's this age group who are typically the perpetrators or the victims of juvenile crime. Who are typically the perpetrators or the victims of juvenile crime. So our innovative center fills that gap for support services for this age group by offering six programs academic support, college prep, career assessment, culinary and kitchen skills, life skill training and health and wellness.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I love that you're filling that gap. And culinary, that's pretty cool too. I love that you have a variety of offerings. So congratulations on creating this wonderful opportunity for our youth. But tell me, how did you get into this? I need to know your background.
Speaker 3:Well, that's an interesting story. We are a military family and for 22 years we relocated our family every three years. Now, that's the total of 13 moves in the US and overseas and, as you can imagine, it was challenging for me, asa spouse, to even have a career, because I lost my job every three years, as well as my friends, and, mind you, we didn't have the internet, social media or the ability to send text messages back then. So as we begin to grow our family, we face some new challenges. We watched our children and we worked with them to help navigate these moves. We watch them struggle to build new and healthy relationships and don't get me started on the challenges of them starting new schools every three years and one of the things that people know but they don't really understand about military moves is that your move doesn't always coincide with the school calendar, so your child is entering school at a different period of the school year and most of the time you're playing catch up because of the differences in curriculum in their former and current schools.
Speaker 3:And unfortunately, we learned that not all school curriculums are equal and, like other children and families, our children face bullying, peer pressure, self-esteem issues, acclimating not only to a new school, but to their new home and community environment. So GAD Youth Center was birthed out of the challenges that we've faced as a family in helping our children adjust and overcome all of these issues. And for me personally, I believe that God is my God-given purpose in life. And as we look at our children today as young adults, they have shared with their father and me that it was the village we created and surrounded them with that helped them to be confident, to become who and what they are today. Now that, in a nutshell, is GAD's mission statement rebuilding and redefining the village it will take to raise the next generation. That's why GAD Youth Center exists.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. So your why is so incredibly powerful? And yeah, military families they have so many challenges, but I love that you're bringing that life experience into what you're doing. You have, I imagine, an incredible amount of compassion for the youth that come through your program. So congratulations on creating this. I'm blown away by what you're doing. Do you find that there are any myths or misconceptions about GAD?
Speaker 3:I don't know if you would consider them myths or misconceptions, but I want to highlight three top reasons why families won't use a service like ours. The third reason which surprised me that it wasn't the first and the top reason is cost. Now, at GATS Youth Center, we've reviewed prices being charged for this age group by similar organizations, as well as the national average, and we've set our rates at a healthy medium that we believe all families can afford. The second reason why families won't use a service like ours is they don't want to pay to send their children to an environment where all they're doing is hanging out, socializing and playing video games. Well, we've addressed this through our six programs and we are engaging with this age group and asking them to begin considering the following questions what's your plan once you graduate high school?
Speaker 3:Do you plan to go to college, a trade school or go directly into the workforce? And, through our programs, youth answer these questions, leading them to develop an individual development plan. We also will be offering job shadowing opportunities to expose them to potential careers. All of this is meant to empower them to be successful in their career and life choices. Now, the top reason and the main reason why families won't use a service like this is location Most parents and guardians. They work, so they have a concern about the drop off and the pickup. Once we have our permanent location, gad will work with the local school district to designate our location as an official bus stop. As an official bus stop, this solves the issue of how youth are transported to our location at the end of the school day where parents and guardians are still at work.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Thank you for clearing those up. I imagine you helped a lot of parents out when they were looking at your offerings and trying to decide if this was the right fit. You know we're looking at your offerings and trying to decide if this was the right fit, so clearly you have a big passion for this and you're very busy. So I need to know when you're not, when you're not working hard, what are you doing for fun? I need to know.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a loaded question because, as a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a big sister I have seven other siblings I don't have a lot of free time, but what I like to do when I do have spare time is I'm a member of a local church, victorious Believers Community Church, so I participate in helping to organize various activities at the church. I'm also an advocate for our neighborhood by elevating and coordinating issues that affect our residents to our local county officials. I love to read when I have time, and recently my husband and I started trying our hand at gardening, so that has been an interesting adventure, to say the least.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. You're a very well-rounded person. I love it. I love it and clearly you're very community-centered, so I love that. Okay, so when you first started the business, I imagine there were a ton of things that you had to learn the hard way. So if you had some advice to give someone who has big dreams, like you were in that position what advice would you give someone?
Speaker 3:Advice in regards to starting a business yeah.
Speaker 2:In regards to starting a business yeah. If someone has big dreams, like you had, and they're thinking about jumping in and starting something, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3:Okay, as you know, Dori, stats show that 20% of new businesses fail within the first year after opening.
Speaker 3:So to make sure that GAD Youth Center had a firm foundation. The first thing I did and would recommend to new entrepreneurs is do your homework. So, personally for me, I attended Joseph Business School to learn more about becoming an entrepreneur and how to write a business plan, and the very first assignment that we were given was to answer this question is your business idea a dream or a viable business? So once we completed the research to answer that question, they took us through a series of courses on how to research and identify our target market competitors, how to build a marketing and a financial plan. But what I enjoyed about this process was, throughout our training and our development of our business plan, we met with corporate and Fortune 500 CEOs to present the plan and receive their advice on how we could strengthen our plan. So at the end of my training, we had a complete business plan.
Speaker 3:The second thing I would strongly recommend to new entrepreneurs is to join your local Chamber of Commerce. The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce has a wealth of information, training and support. Also, organizations like SCORE and the Small Business Development Center provides free training to business owners as well. So don't make the mistake of trying to do it alone. Do it right by using these free resources to establish your business.
Speaker 2:Such great advice. Thank you for that. I imagine you just helped so many people. Thank you advice. Thank you for that. I imagine you just helped so many people, thank you. So what is something that you wish the?
Speaker 3:listeners knew about GAD Youth Center. Gad Youth Center is on a mission and our mission is to rebuild and redefine the village it's going to take to raise the next generation. I grew up in the South in the 70s, in a community where everyone raised us. You had the neighbors, the pastors, the people in church, the teachers, the guy who even owned the corner grocery store. So, dori, if I had to ask our listeners one question, it would be this Does the village it took to raise my generation exist for our youth today? And sadly, for many youth, the answer would be no.
Speaker 3:That's why GAD Youth Center is necessary and we have been working diligently to meet and network with community leaders and businesses to form a village that will come together to encourage, support and empower our youth personally, socially, academically and personally professionally, I'm sorry. So while we're looking to identify a permanent home, we didn't want to wait until we had our permanent location. So we have some exciting news. This summer we have teamed up with Hope Presbyterian Church here in Fredericksburg to host a series of pilot workshops, Starting Wednesday June 11th through July 23rd. We'll be meeting every Wednesday from 12 to 4 pm. We've lined up some incredible speakers. We're offering lunch, snacks, drinks, and we have some local organizations that are helping us to provide transportation from a central drop off and pickup points throughout the city drop-off and pickup points throughout the city. So spaces are limited, but we invite families to register now and get ready for an inspiring and fun-filled summer at GAD.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. Congratulations, that's a big milestone, I love it yes. So if the listeners want to learn more about your programs, where can they find you?
Speaker 3:Again, we're still searching for a permanent location, but listeners can learn more about us by going to our website. Our website also provides links to our social media platforms.
Speaker 2:And, finally, it allows you to leave your contact information or sign up for volunteer opportunities. Arline, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. What you are doing with GAD Youth Center is so important to our community and I thank you for sharing it with us.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for having us. And again, we can't do this alone, and that's why we're so adamant and determined to have that village surrounding our youth. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast. com. That's fxbgneighborspodcast. com, or call 540-534-4618.