Advantage Program

November 8, 2022 – In celebration of our 35th Anniversary Year and in conjunction with Rotary International’s “Imagine” Theme, York-East is undertaking a “Dream Big” Community Project. This project will involve one of the Seven Areas of Focus for Rotary, and will be a chance for all members to get involved as Rotarians and friends.  This is a great way to celebrate York-East’s 35th year and to help the York community. The Board of Directors has approved use of $10,000 from club funds.  

 Mr Parker is a 2013 graduate of William Penn SHS. He is the Owner of Tavon’s Lawn Care LLC, a motivational speaker, and one of York's most influential people for 2022. After losing his scholarship and going to jail, Tavon dedicated his life to helping our youth to not make the same mistakes. Tavon Parker, founder of the Advantage program reviewed how they would use these funds if awarded the grant. Tavon stated that the funds would be used to purchase a van to transport the children to the program each week. The Advantage Program is a youth mentorship program geared to expose middle and high school aged children to life’s opportunities. The mentors and mentees will meet weekly on Saturday’s for a two-hour time period. During these sessions the curriculum for this program will include entrepreneurship, financial literacy, civil engagement, culinary arts, athletics, and business principles.  Once per month, the Advantage Program will expose participating students to an event or venue outside of York County such as, HBCU’s, NASA, music concerts, college sporting events, the black and wax museum, and professional sporting events. The overall goal of the Advantage Program is to expose the children to different life opportunities as well as multiple career paths. The program hopes to be able to provide necessary school items during the school year as well as a scholarship to college. By helping each student to create a four year plan for after high school and identifying possible career paths through the Career Path exam, we believe we can keep each student focused on positivity and achieving their goals.