Our Mission & Story

Our cornerstone belief is that all children can develop and become positive members of society when they are given the opportunities to be successful. All participants, after completing the Advantage Lancaster program, will be equipped with the skills and aptitude needed to navigate their way through their primary academic career and on to some form of higher education, thus increasing their opportunities to succeed.

Ty Bair grew up with 13 brothers and sisters where education was not a main priority. After losing two siblings to gang-related violence, Mr. Bair realized that dropping out of school was the common thread that led them to the street life. He began to rely on those who came into his life and taught him that he didn’t have to repeat the cycle. He met Shayne Meadows during his first year of teaching at Hand Middle School while Mr. Bair was completing his education in high school. The two of them clicked. Mr. Bair soon began his career path in education as well and, after having worked together and becoming friends, the pair began to notice that over the summer the students were losing what knowledge they had learned in the classroom. With some of the students already behind in learning, they put their heads together and questioned what an education and reading program would look like without the constricted boundaries of a class setting.

Their goal was to give middle school students experiences to keep them engaged in education throughout the summer months. In 2002, they picked a book and for eight weeks during the summer, Mr. Bair and Mr. Meadows traveled, read, and conducted community service with a group of 13 students. When the fun-filled summer of learning came to an end, the two teachers decided to continue their group throughout the school year. Advantage Lancaster soon became an official mentorship program with a main focus of keeping students accountable for what they learn and decreasing the learning loss throughout the school year by exposing kids to a variety of activities.

“We’ve grown out of necessity. You get to know the young people, you work with them, and you’re not a mentor for five hours or you’re not a mentor for eight hours… you’re a mentor all the time. So sometimes we get a call from a student and they say ‘Mr. Bair or Mr. Meadows, I’m thinking about taking this summer opportunity instead of investing in myself.’ We have to say, ‘Wait a minute, you want to work at Dutch Wonderland or Wendy’s, but what about that Algebra II class or what about that class that we had been planning on for you? In the long run, what is going to benefit you the best?’ We need to build opportunities where the students are able to work in the summer for money but still get the opportunity to better themselves,” Mr. Meadows states.