YES! is a nonprofit organization that empowers youth, in partnership with adults, to create community change. The advocacy work is centered on strategies that empower youth to address critical issues facing their communities: teen tobacco use, childhood obesity, substance abuse and access to healthcare. At YES!, high school-aged students are hired as staff members who work in conjunction with adult staff. This helps to create intergenerational power sharing where young people’s ideas are not only heard but routinely implemented.
Youth become competent community advocates by receiving training in such areas as public speaking, media literacy, community assessment, gathering community support, working with policymakers, and evaluation. Additionally, YES! provides support to adults and organizations by offering training and technical assistance so that they may be better allies to empowered youth. They provide networking opportunities, encourage partnerships and assess organizations’ youth empowerment capacity and application of the Youth Empowerment Model.
Population of focus: Youth
Link to resource: http://www.youthempoweredsolutions.org/
Organization: Youth Empowered Solutions
Date: 2007