Our mission at GYSIX is to nurture kids who are in or have experienced foster care to success and independence.
More Than Survival
We believe every kid who’s been through the foster system deserves more than survival, they deserve a shot at a genuinely good life. Not the watered-down, pat-on-the-back version. The real thing. Stability. Confidence. Someone who has their back.
GYSIX exists because the system wasn’t built to follow through. It was built to keep kids safe until they turn 18 and then the clock runs out. We’re here to pick up where the system stops, and to show up during the gaps the system leaves behind.
We’re a Middle TN organization, born from personal experience and built by people who’ve seen firsthand what it means when a kid has no one in their corner. We don’t do this from a distance. We’re in it – at the kitchen table, in the hair salon chair, on the other end of the phone.
What We Stand On
Show Up First, Figure It Out Together
We don't wait for a perfect plan. When there's a need, we move. Speed matters when a kid is counting on someone.
Dignity Over Charity
We don't do pity. Every kid we serve is treated with respect and agency, not as a case number or a sad story.
Real Relationships, Not Programs
Paperwork doesn't change lives. People do. We build genuine connections, not check-the-box mentorship.
Community Over Institution
We're neighbors helping neighbors, not a bureaucracy. Middle TN takes care of its own.
Why GYSIX Exists
GYSIX was founded by Cassie Hall, who saw the gaps in Tennessee’s foster care system not from a boardroom, but from real life. She watched kids fall through the cracks, not because nobody cared, but because the system wasn’t designed to catch them.
So she built something that was.
The name says it all. In military culture, “got your six” means someone is watching your back. Cassie built GYSIX on that promise: that every foster youth in Middle TN would have someone standing behind them. Not someday. Right now.
What Success Looks Like
Success isn’t a metric on a spreadsheet. It’s a 19-year-old who knows how to cook a meal for themselves. It’s a teenager who walks into a job interview with freshly styled hair and the confidence to match. It’s a young adult who has someone to call when the world gets heavy.
We measure success by whether a young person feels less alone today than they did yesterday. Everything else follows from there.
Ready to Be Part of the Solution?
It starts with one conversation.