Breanna Hayes

This month’s installment of our Staff Spotlight series features our Program Facilitator, Breanna Hayes. Breanna became part of Beam Center in 2017 when she was recruited to the Apprenticeship program from the Boys and Girls High School. 

After she graduated from Beam’s Apprenticeship, Breanna joined our Project Leaders program. As a Project Leader, Breanna developed, designed, and taught projects to kids in after-school programs.  When asked about her experiences at Beam, she states, “I needed it because I was staying in the house and I was by myself and I needed to be around people. I loved the apprenticeship. It was warm and heartfelt.”

In 2021 Breanna was hired as a full-time employee at Beam Center as a facilitator. She returned to the program she began with and helped facilitate the Apprenticeship. Breanna says that she joined the Apprenticeship team because she wanted to give back. She said, “Sometimes [facilitating] feels really good but sometimes I don’t know if I am giving them as much as I got from the Apprenticeship…that’s the whole purpose of me staying on the Apprenticeship team. I want the Apprentices to feel how I felt. I want them to feel happy to come back and provide the support they need even outside of Beam. The Apprenticeship team and the community of it helped me a lot when I was going through a tough time, and I want to do the same for others” 

Breanna is now serving as the Youth Director at Beam Camp City, where she leads a team of older teens and young adults, guiding them in their journey as a camp counselor. She facilitates and schedules the day-to-day roles for counselors and will provide support to counselors outside of Beam when she can. 

Along with being a full-time employee at Beam Center, Breanna is a hair stylist on weekends. She started styling her hair when she was in high school. Before entering high school, Breanna wanted to change up her hairstyle and try something new. She says, “I always liked dramatic hair looks, but I just wanted something different when I went to high school.” Breanna got her hair done at the hair salon to prepare for her first day of high school. However, her hair was not done to her

liking, “I didn’t like how my hair was and I didn’t feel beautiful so I tried it myself and it came out pretty good.” From there her best friend asked Breanna to do her hair and then her mom. Now, Breanna styles hair on the weekends and has even had the opportunity to do hair for some of Beam’s program participants!