STATE OF GEORGIA CHILDREN AND YOUTH COORDINATING COUNCIL To Whom It May Concern: My name is Georgina Iyamu and I am employed with the Georgia Children and Youth Coordinating Council (CYCC) as the Program Management & Evaluation Specialist. As part of my responsibilities with CYCC, I am responsible for managing youth development programs and coordinating state-wide initiatives and programs to provide Georgia’s youth and youth educators access to the most effective youth development trainers/educators and curriculums. As a result, I have received the great opportunity to meet and work with many youth, adults, and organizations outside the CYCC scope that have repeatedly request Mr. David Mahan for various speaking engagements. These are just a few words used by these individuals to describe Mr. Mahan… “Inspiring”, “Genuine”, “Passionate”. Within the last two years, I have had the extreme pleasure of working on numerous projects with David as well as the staff at Frontline Youth Communications. Our professional relationship developed over 3 years ago after our initial meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. I attended one of David’s workshops and was completely captivated by his passion and dedication not only to his vision, but more so to our youth. From that moment on, I immediately sought out to learn more about Mr. Mahan and his organization in order to bring him to speak at statewide trainings in Georgia. David’s principle of effective communication with our youth through interactive and holistic youth development embodies the ideology of the mission and goals of CYCC. As a result, it was a unanimous decision to invite Mr. Mahan as a speaker for one of the largest CYCC youth summit ever hosted in the state of Georgia. This event was hosted a little over a year ago on June 16th with over 1,000 youth in attendance. Mr. Mahan’s mission to help young people form the foundation that will shape their futures was evident at the summit through his art of motivating and uplifting story telling; spoken poetry; and music. To this day, I continue to receive requests from youth who attended the summit to “PLEASE bring back Mr. Dave!!” Since the CYCC youth summit, Mr. Mahan has been brought back continuously not only for our youth but also as a speaker for CYCC professional trainings and workshops for adults. As a state agency that monitors the Title V (Section 510) federal grant in Georgia, not only are we dedicated to funding youth development
programs with federal and state funds, we are also committed to hosting statewide seminars and conferences for all youth serving agencies and professionals within different sectors such as the government, nonprofits/community-based, school systems, public and private organizations. Mr. Mahan is a dynamic instructor who effectively educates and equips adults with skill sets in maintaining and building positive, mentoring relationships with youth. As you can see, CYCC as well as our state will always be a fan of Mr. Mahan. We are exceedingly honored of working with an individual such as David who is devoted and steadfast in shaping the lives of today’s youth. Sincerely, Georgina O. Iyamu, MPH Program Management & Evaluation Specialist