C5 Georgia

Youth should have equitable opportunities to achieve success regardless of their background, community, or life circumstances.

C5 Georgia’s mission is to change the odds for high potential teens from under-resourced communities by inspiring them to pursue personal success, while preparing them for leadership roles in college, work, and their communities.

The C5 concept was conceived in 1999 by John Alm, former CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises. John recognized the value of summer camp in his own children as they built confidence, self-esteem and interpersonal skills. Investing his own resources, John created the Camp Paintrock Program at his Wyoming ranch and first began working with young people in the Los Angeles area. After a few years of success, John started Camp Coca-Cola in metro Atlanta.

John later convinced Coca-Cola Enterprises to make a significant investment of $25M to secure the help of youth development experts and PHD’s. In 2005, recognizing the name “Camp Coca-Cola” didn’t do justice to the goals, the name was changed to the C5 Association of Youth Programs. Today there are four C5 Youth Program locations in Los Angeles, Texas, New England, and Georgia.

C5 Georgia Youth Foundation was established in 2005 with our first cohort of teens who completed the program 5 years later as the “Class of 2010”.