PvilleYI Partners with treehouse
Pleasantville Youth Initiative strives to provide quality programming for teens and their families in Pleasantville. For this reason it is vital that the programs we will implement are evidence and experienced based. We have always had a goal to add mentoring and support groups to our list of offerings to Pleasantville, but we wanted to make sure we were trained to provide these services. This is why PvilleYI is thrilled to announce our partnership with TreeHouse!
What is TreeHouse?
TreeHouse has been serving teens since 1984, helping them build relationships and resiliency rooted in living hope. Based in Minnesota, TreeHouse has sites across the country. Each site hosts programs that give teens a safe space to find support and belonging. Through mentorships, support groups, and other activities, teens have the opportunity to build even deeper relationships with peers and caring adults.
TreeHouse Mission: To End Hopelessness Among Teens.
TreeHouse is more than just a curriculum. It’s a model that is designed to meet the spiritual, social, and emotional needs of teens in every community.
How will this partnership benefit PvilleYI?
Mentoring: Teens can develop deep relationships with mentors as they process life and develop faith. These will be one-on-one mentoring sessions with trained volunteer mentors. All mentors will be background checked and trained by PvilleYI using a proven model and materials provided by TreeHouse.
Support Groups: Students will learn social and emotional skills by processing their week’s emotions together in a faith-neutral environment. These groups will be faith-neutral so that we can connect with students in the school and be a support for them even if they do not share our faith.
Faith-Centered Groups and Events: TreeHouse believes that Christ is the center of the transformation we want to see in every teen’s life. And so do we! Curriculum to offer small group Bible Studies or large group faith focused events is included in our TreeHouse partnership.
Evidence-Based Training and Support
TreeHouse will provide training for PvilleYI’s directors as well as resources for our team to use as we train volunteers, mentors, and work with local partners. This training includes a 12 week cohort for PvilleYI Directors (which we have already started!).
TreeHouse is picky about who they partner with, and so are we! We began the conversation over two years ago and both we and TreeHouse have researched one another in the meantime. Recently PvilleYI met the high standards that organizations that partner with TreeHouse are required to meet.
An important note: PvilleYI is still PvilleYI. We completely keep our identity as an organization in every way. These specific programs will simply be powered by TreeHouse resources and training, which PvilleYI pays for from our budget. Which we are happy to say we can do so thanks to the generosity of donors in our community!
TreeHouse also provides PvilleYI with:
Policy and Organization Guidance
Best Practices Guides and Safety Checklists
Volunteer Training Resources and Guides
Materials and Resources for Mentoring Teens
Materials and Resources for Teen Support Groups
Materials, Resources, and Curriculum for Faith Connection Groups and Events
Materials, Resources, and Curriculum for Specialized Classes (College Readiness, Financial Management, etc)
Continued and Current Training in Specific Areas Impacting Teens
A Coach Assigned Specifically to our Co-Directors for Our Organization’s Unique Needs
Prayer and Accountability Support for our Leadership and Community
The Guidance of An Organization with 40 years Experience
How Soon Will These Programs Be Available?
Our goal is to begin offering one-on-one mentoring and some support groups as early as the fall of 2024. Once our building project is complete, we will be able to expand these offerings even more and offer faith building groups and events, as well as specialized classes, in addition to our current programming.
We are so excited about what we are already learning from a seasoned and solid organization like TreeHouse. We can’t wait to begin mentoring and supporting teens in Pleasantville!
To learn more about TreeHouse, you can can visit their website.
If you have questions for us about this partnership, please reach out to us at jennie@pvilleyi.org
Courtney/Cox/Calhoun Pitch Tournament Donation
PvilleYI received an incredibly generous gift in honor of some wonderful people! The Courtney/Cox/Calhoun Pitch Tournament Committee presented us with a $1000 donation toward our building project. Thank you! To see more about our building project, go here.
May baskets 2024
HAPPY MAY DAY! We dropped off 500 May Baskets at the elementary school on May 1st! Thanks to our helpers, and a special thanks to the Young Adult group at Celebrate Church for volunteering your group time to assemble these with us! Many teachers and parents reached out to share their appreciate for this small act of kindness. We believe infusing even small moments of joy in chidlren’s lives can make a HUGE difference!
Prom Prep morning 2024
We had a fantastic morning spoiling Pleasantville’s prom attendee girls! All young women attending prom were invited to stop by the Memorial Hall to grab an iced coffee or juice, some delicious carbohydrates from Panera Bread, and a goody bag from us! Bags were filled with prom day essentials like lip gloss, gum, bandaids, tissues, hair clips, and more.
Girls were also invited to reserve an appointment to have their hair or makeup done for free by talented volunteers! The spots filled up fast, but we also had volunteers on hand for walk-ins.
We had a great morning encouraging these young women with some pampering and fun!
Celebrate Church thanksgiving offering donation
In November, our ministry partner Celebrate Church chose PvilleYI as the recipient of a special Thanksgiving offering. They collectively blessed us with $16,894.86!
We are so incredibly grateful for the support Celebrate has given us and continues to give us, not only in financial support but in prayer and encouragement. THANK YOU to everyone who participated in this amazing Thanksgiving Offering! We are praying blessings and abundance over you!
Chick-fil-a christmas dinner 2024
What a FUN NIGHT! We had so much fun serving these teens tonight! Chick-fil-a, Christmas Tree Cakes, Sparkling Cider, and PRESENTS! A room filled with JOY. Teens were welcomed into a room decorated with lovely tables and candle-lit dinner. They remained seated as our volunteers served them their meals, drinks, and desserts. Then we passed out gifts for everyone! Each box contained fun novelty items for the teens to enjoy together. One item that was included was a retro WWJD bracelet (what would Jesus do).
Our goal for this event was to allow the teens to be served by us with no expectations from them whatsoever. We spent time talking with teens at each table and were able to encourage them. There was a lot of laughing, and a lot of fun!
Thanks to Marcy Pettyjohn for donating all the little paper ”crackers”, and to St. Paul’s UMC for the use of your Family Life Center!
New Office Space for PvilleYI
We are SO excited! We now have an office space in downtown Pleasantville. This space will serve our needs as we continue to work toward our building project goal.
We are also incredibly grateful that a generous donor has come forward to pay the rent for this office space for an ENTIRE YEAR. WOW.
We are already hard at work preparing for how we will use this space to bless our community even more!
Trick or Treat on the Square 2023
We had a GREAT night at our Trick or Treat on the Square 2023! It was a COLD night, but we had a record turnout none the less. This could be in part to the Chick-fil-a food truck! They joined us for the night and families had a great time trick-or-treating and grabbing a bite to eat as well. In fact, Chick-Fil-A had to send for MORE food. How about that!
Thanks to the organizations and businesses who came out to give the kiddos treats!
American Legion Women’s Auxiliary
Bill Harvey Construction
Boy Scouts
Brandi Booth
Checkerboard
Christ Family Church
City of Pleasantville
Crush Nutrition
D&D Auto Body
Dollar General
Fairview Christian Church
Friends of the Library
Marion County Express
Masons
Peoples Bank
Pleasantville Chamber of Commerce
Pleasantville Christian Church
Smokey Row
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Unleashed Pet Boarding
Za-Ga-Zig Shriners
Post Game Party 2023
WOW. What a night! We had 120 middle and high school youth attend our 2023 Post Game Party! We had a BLAST. At this event we have music to dance to, but we also throw in some games. Everyone was COLD and TIRED after the football game, but we had a good time anyway!
Middle School Dance Night 2023
Well, that was FUN! Over 100 Middle School students attended our 2023 dance night! We had so much fun! Of course this event was free with snacks and drinks, as well as MUSIC!
Pool Party in Carlisle 2023
We had a BLAST swimming at the Carlisle pool! Middle School and High School students were invited for a free night of swimming. Everyone had a great time!
FCA Worship Night
We were so excited to help at the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) worship night at Pleasantville Christian Church. We were able to bring cookies donated by Subway as well as drinks to offer as refreshments following the service.
Originally the event was intended to be an outdoor service behind the library. When heavy rain threatened to cancel the event, Pleasantville Christian Church stepped up to open their doors to the teens who had organized the event.
It was a beautiful night of worship!
Pville Pig Out 2023
We had some fun at the 2023 Pleasantville Pig Out! We set up our 9-Square set on the square and kids, teens, and adults had some fun playing the game! We love to bring a little fun to our community whenever we can.
Happy May Day! 2023
We delivered our annual May Baskets to the elementary school on May 1st! 600 little bags of fun for each student. Little surprises bring a lot of joy to life, don’t they!
Girls Prom Prep and Brunch
On Saturday, April 22nd, PvilleYI hosted a free girls prom prep day and brunch. We had five volunteers ready to do hair and makeup for girls for free. These were by appointment, and our volunteers were busy the whole day!
In addition, all girls attending the PHS prom were invited to drop-in for a prom day brunch. We served them a beautiful charcuterie-style spread complete with yogurt parfait, fruit, pastries, chicken salad sandwiches, meats and cheeses, and of course, Girl Scout cookies! Tables were also decorated with tulips picked from our very own gardens.
Girls were also welcomed with an ice-coffee bar and a delicious breakfast punch.
Each girl left with a gift bag containing a pura-vida bracelet, scrunchies, candy, gum, and a few items they may need in a pinch on prom day including some tissues, bandaids, makeup wipes, and lip gloss.
We absolutely loved to welcome these girls with open arms and bless them with some hospitality on their special day!
A HUGE THANK YOU goes to our hair and make-up volunteers: Holly DeGoey, Sierra Hutton, Taelor Sheets, Grace Hayes, and Chelsea Bender. Also to Brenda Goodale who donated acrylic nail sets for the girls to have! And to Tammy Clark for her help in set up, welcoming, and clean up.
Another HUGE THANK YOU goes to Ali and Mike Cranmer for donating pastries from jaarsma and Pella beef sticks/cheese curds.
Knoxville Rec Center Night
We had another great time at the Knoxville Rec Center on March 4, 2023! We love renting the rec center and inviting Pleasantville’s teens over to swim and play basketball. They love to socialize and get out of the house on cold nights! It’s always a hit!
Girl Scout Cookie Class
On February 16th, Co-Found Emily Caulkins taught a class to Pleasantville’s Girl Scouts on how to bake chocolate chip cookies! They had a great time earning their little badges! These sheets designed by Jennie helped the kids follow along while Emily showed them how to bake the cookies, and how recipes work.
Middle School Winter Dance Night
On February 3rd, 2023, we had a BLAST hosting a Middle School only Dance Night at Pleasantville’s Memorial Hall! Cass was back with Central Iowa DJ blasting tunes. We offered free drinks and snacks as always, and the kids had a fantastic time dancing and snapping photos at the photo booth area. We had fun giveaways, too!
The PvilleYI Very Merry Chick-Fil-A Christmas Dinner
On December 20th, 2022, PvilleYI hosted the Very Merry Chick-Fil-A Christmas Dinner! Middle and High School students were invited to attend. The event was held at Fairview Christian Church and catered by Chick-Fil-A. Teens were welcomed with festive tables and a small stocking filled with candy and fun items. Marcy Pettyjohn sewed each little stocking and donated them. The teens loved them!
It was a very fun night and everyone left with full tummies and a lot of great memories.
