Yippie Yogurt Is A Dream Come True. The Doors Are Open! Yippie!

Alicia Rainey chops strawberries during her first day at the newly opened Yippie Yogurt on Friday along West Texas Street and Beck Avenue in Fairfield. Yippie Yogurt is a part of the Yippie Foundation, which is a non-profit helping underprivileged youth gain career skills and job experience in the community. (Conner Jay/Daily Republic)

By Heather Ah San
From Page A3, November 3, 2012
Daily Republic

FAIRFIELD — When Yippie Yogurt started advertising its program in Fairfield two years ago, something about it caught Alicia Rainey’s eye – the word “mentoring.”

Rainey was interested in becoming a youth mentor, but after she graduated from high school, she needed guidance.

So Rainey applied to the Yippie Yogurt program, to get the mentorship she needed to boost her career opportunities.

Rainey displayed the skills she learned through program training Friday afternoon during Yippie Yogurt’s first day open to the public.

The Yippie Foundation is nonprofit that provides Solano County homeless, foster care and low-income youths with job readiness, vocational mentoring and life skills through its training and internship programs. It is an acronym for Youth Initiating Professional Preparedness In Employment.
Youths 16 to 24 get credit for about 20 to 30 hours of job readiness education after graduating from a six-month paid internship at the Yippie Yogurt shop.

Sherilyn Henry, president of the Yippie Foundation, said the shop is a great opportunity for low-income youths to both enhance their resume and receive valuable guidance from professionals through the vocational mentoring program.

Rainey is one of the graduates of the program and one of the first employees to open up shop.
Standing at the register with a smile on her face, Rainey said she felt ready and prepared to handle the task of running the store, at least for her shift.
“So far so good,” she said.

Rainey said she hopes that once she graduates from college, she can come back to Yippie Yogurt and become a vocational mentor herself. She credits Henry and the foundation for the encouragement to reach her goal.

“Sherilyn has been a big inspiration, starting this, mentoring youth,” Rainey said.
Yippie Yogurt is located at 1955 W. Texas St., No. 40, in the Winery Square shopping center. For more information about the foundation, visit www.yippiefoundation.com

Reach Heather Ah San at 427-6977 or hahsan@dailyrepublic.net. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/HeatherMalia.

Article courtesy of Daily Republic, Fairfield and Suisun City, CA daily newspaper. www.DailyRepublic.com