Ortez Madison makes a stop inside school to make sure kids are going to class. It's part of his duties as a life coach for the Good Life Foundation’s street outreach program that helps kids who have been in the criminal justice system.  

The Good Life Foundation uses hip hop as a way to help kids find their identity and purpose.

Azariah Yemma is the program director and knows what it’s like for the kids he helps. Having been in their shoes, the kids trust him and listen to what he has to say.

“It’s my life mission. I was in the community and I was in the streets for a long time, and I felt, like, it caused damage to our community. It became a mission to me because I always thought of what was I missing, or what did I need or what could someone have said to me to help me move a little differently?” said Yemma.

A lot of the kids Yemma and the life coaches help are illiterate and live in extreme poverty. Giving the kids resources to further their education and find jobs is essential to reduce recidivism.

Affording the kids more opportunity is the CNY Community Foundation’s Black Equity & Excellence Fund, which recently awarded Good Life with a $25,000 grant. That money will go toward a career development program that connects kids to manufacturing jobs.

“This is just another notch on their belt on ways to be able to help youth reach their economic goals, but while also supporting them socially and emotionally,” said CNY Community Foundation Program Officer Dashiell Elliott.

Entrepreneurship is a big part of The Good Life Foundation. They encourage kids to create and run their own businesses, and they even sell some of the kids' products at their store “The Life” at the Salt City Market.

Azarah’s goal is to give kids the knowledge and opportunity he wish he had growing up.

“This is a life mission to me. This is something that I wake up, I got to sleep on. Twenty-four-seven, kids call me in the middle of night, kids call me in the middle of the day. I still make myself accessible and I work cases with the guys because this is just something that's part of my everyday life and my fabric,” said Yemma.

The Good Life Foundation has partnerships with Onondaga County agencies and the Syracuse City School District to better reach and help kids. Since it’s founding, youth arrests have dropped by nearly 60%.