CLEVELAND — Mario Grey, 22, works at Bite Creole Kitchen in Euclid. It’s a job he’s thankful to have.

“I'm here to learn. I'm here to better myself,” Grey said. 

He got his new job at Bite Creole Kitchen during the pandemic. 

“Especially, when I come here, it’s like family now,” Grey said. 

He just had his third baby girl. His girls are who motivate him the most, he said.

“They mean everything. Everything I'm going to do is for them. Everything I've been doing is for them,” Grey said. 

But Grey didn’t do this on his own. He had help from a nonprofit organization in Cleveland. 

“Coming from Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Y.O.U, I really feel like my opportunities are still unlimited to this day,” Grey said. 

Y.O.U. puts teens and young adults from underserved communities on the path to economic self-sufficiency. 

“Problems came left (and) right, streets started getting destroyed, everything just started getting drawn on. It was just so much crime, so much. So many people was lost,” said Grey, who is from the St. Clair area of Cleveland.  

He came to Y.O.U as a teenager with hopes of changing the direction of his life. 

“I didn't want them to see me in jail or dead by age 25, 21, 22. I wanted them to see me as successful,” Grey said. 

His co-worker and now friend, 25-year-old Jenna Myers, also wanted to change the direction of her life. 

“Not a lot of people have the resources to present themselves how they should be presented in regular interviews on their own because of everything that they go through in their personal life. They have issues with transportation, clothing options, just personal stuff, just not anything that would bring you to a professional setting. And Y.O.U basically took that stress away from me,” Myers said.  

Myers grew up in an economically distressed area in Akron. 

“Everything was so down, dirty, grimy. Nobody took care of anything. Nobody wanted to do anything because they looked at it like, this is the way things are and there's nothing we can do about it,” Myers said. 

She didn't want to be anything like where she came from. So she took control of her own life with the help of Y.O.U.

“It has given me more emotional and mental support than anything in my life — therapy, my own family, friends, everything they gave me, standing, grounding,” Myers said. 

Dominic Murray, program director for the YAOP Program with Y.O.U, said he enjoys seeing the lightbulb for success go off in the young adults he helps.

He wants to make sure youth coming from underserved communities understand they have and deserve a place in this world. 

“When they come in, they're like this piece of clay and not sure where they want to go in life. But then once they go through some of the training and then have the experiences, they understand that they can be successful and participate in this economy,” Murray said. 

Y.O.U has many programs and training opportunities available for teens and young adults. 

“Our goal is to further prepare them to be successful in the world of work. We have work experience programs. We have our training programs. We have credential programs. Those credentials are S.T.N.A and I.T., customer care and construction,” Murray said.  

Y.O.U helps give teens and young adults the opportunity of a lifetime, with unlimited possibilities. 

“I'm thankful, thankful, so thankful for everything. I just want to give back as much as possible,” Grey said. 

Youth Opportunities Unlimited is always seeking employers to participate in their many programs to help teens find jobs and be successful.

For more information, click here to visit youthopportunities.org.