Birmingham Youth Assistance is an organization that provides counselors to help kids when they are struggling with parents arguing, parents going through a divorce, or siblings in their household that deal with drug use.
BYA members, including Ann Manning and Lynne Zacharias, love everything BYA does for people, especially being able to help families and kids during tough times. Manning has been involved with BYA for 11 years, while Zacharias just started at the beginning of 2023, however, they both understand the importance of what BYA does for people.
“I feel privileged to work for an organization that does so much in the community by serving BPS students who need intervention, organizing community events and providing service recognition to student volunteers,” said member of BYA, Lynne Zacharias.
“We [BYA] would love it if more kids and families knew that we could help, and provide free counseling, and not just for the students but for the families too.” said board member, Ann Manning.

Although many people come to BYA for help during a tough time, there are still many kids who aren’t aware of BYA and have to deal with their family struggles on their own. BYA tries to promote itself to people by hosting events for children and their families in BYA’s area.
One of these events BYA was “Touch a Truck”, which was held on May 20, 2023, at Bingham Farms Elementary School. This event helped raise money for the BYA and promote what the BYA does for children and families. Touch a Truck was where a bunch of trucks such as school buses, police cars, horses, ambulances, fire trucks, and more came and parked in the loop at Bingham Farms Elementary. The kids were able to come with their families, donate money to the BYA and go in all the trucks and talk to the people who brought them. The kids had a great time and there was a huge turnout, a record count of around 1,200 people.

These events, such as “Touch a Truck” are not only ways to promote BYA, but also an opportunity for teenagers who need community service hours or just want to help out in their community. They can come volunteer at these events and get involved in their community.
Some of the other events BYA provides include a food truck rally on June 10th, Breakfast with Santa on December 3rd in Birmingham, a dog show in the Berkshire gym on February 4, 2024, and another Touch a Truck event at the end of May in 2024.
Events like these need help from the community to keep running though. The food truck rally needs kids to help collect admission when people walk in and to pick up trash. This will be hosted from 7 am-11 pm in the parking lot at Maple and Orchard Lake Rd. If you choose to volunteer at the food truck rally event you don’t have to work the whole time, just as long as you want. If any high schoolers are interested in volunteering, you should email [email protected].
If teens do enough volunteering at events like these, they are eligible to apply for the community service award. This award looks great on college applications and can help you earn scholarships. This is also a great way to give back to your community and become more involved.