Saying YES to Kids: How Franklin County Got More Young People Into Activities — and Kept It Simple to Run
“Since we started Just Say Yes, we have seen improvements in measures of connectedness as well as mental health and substance use.”
*Peer-reviewed: Meyers et al., Health Education Research, 2023. Read the study.
Franklin County, Kentucky gives middle and high school students $400 a year to spend on the healthy activities they choose. Kids are joining more, families don’t have to front the cost, and the program is simple to run.
Cost was keeping kids on the sidelines. The YES Card took it off the table.
Franklin County’s leaders saw the same pattern many communities see: families struggling to afford enrichment activities, after-school hours going unstructured, and too many students without a supportive, supervised place to be.
They looked to Iceland, where Reykjavík’s Leisure Card gives young people the means to join sports, music, arts and other organized activities — a core part of the Icelandic Prevention Model. In the fall of 2020, Franklin County launched its own version: the YES Card, a $400-a-year enrichment card that students use at approved local providers for classes, lessons, leagues and programs.
Kids who got the card joined more — sports, arts, music and more
A peer-reviewed study of Franklin County’s students compared YES Card recipients with similar students who didn’t receive the card. Over one year, card recipients were:
- almost twice as likely to participate in organized sports, and
- two and a half times as likely to participate in non-sport organized activities like arts, music and dance.
The card reached the students who often miss out. Girls and students who didn’t identify with a gender were almost three times more likely to join non-sport activities, and students who saw their family’s finances as worse off than others’ were more likely to join organized sports.
Families choose the activity. The card handles the rest.
For families, the YES Card is simple. There are no receipts to submit and no reimbursements to wait for, and no one has to front the money and hope to get it back. A student picks a dance class, a martial arts program, music lessons or a Parks & Rec league, and pays with the card like any other card.
- Delivered by email or printed, so families without reliable internet at home aren’t left out.
- Accepted only by approved providers, so the money goes where the program intends.
- Students pay like anyone else — the card works like any other card at the front desk.
Word spread: participation nearly doubled in year two
In the program’s first year, a fraction of card holders used it for organized activities. By the next year, that number had nearly doubled, as students saw their friends try new things and instructors encouraged them to explore. When an opportunity is visible and easy to use, families respond.
Easy to run: Yiftee handles the heavy lifting
Franklin County rolled the YES Card out quickly, without administrative headaches or pushback from providers. Yiftee handles the parts that usually bog a program down:
- Getting funds to students — cards issued in bulk, no checks or reimbursement paperwork
- Enabling and paying approved providers — they accept the card with no special hardware
- Keeping spending on purpose — the card works only at the providers the program approves
- Knowing who’s being reached — a short survey when a family activates the card
- Reporting to the board — how many students are enrolled, how many activities they’ve joined, and which providers they’re using
Good for the whole community
The YES Card started with seven local providers. Today 88 providers take it, offering dance, sports, martial arts, music, theater and more. Those instructors and coaches aren’t just accepting a card — they’re becoming mentors and trusted adults in young people’s lives. See the full list of providers.
Over five years, more than $1 million has gone to Franklin County students for lessons, leagues and classes with the local providers who teach them.
Bringing the Icelandic model to your community?
The YES Card is Franklin County’s version of the Leisure Card, and it works anywhere a program wants to put activities within kids’ reach. Yiftee powers programs in hundreds of communities across the country. Let’s talk about what a YES Card could look like for yours.
“The Yes Card impacted out-of-school participation, which encouraged us to continue expanding the Yes Cards and making sure the program continues.”