POSITIVE YOUTH development

Our services are rooted in a passion for and belief in our individual youth members’ resilience and ability to achieve.  Our services are individualized, intense and flexible.

Friends supports youth on an individualized basis to reach their goals through a model of neighborhood-based availability and service, extending its reach into the communities most impacted by disproportionate justice system involvement and crucial to sustaining long-term, positive youth development.

Friends provides services along five domains to promote positive youth development: health and well-being, education, employment, community engagement/participation, and arts and recreation.  Youth advocacy staff support young people in preparing for the GED, reenrolling in high school, or applying for and enrolling into college or vocational trades.  We coach job-interested youth members through building a resume, developing interview and soft skills, and securing and retaining employment.  Through individual counseling and group workshops, we support healthy emotional development and overall well-being.  We meet young people in their own neighborhood in order to connect with their lives, families and friends and to leverage relevant local services on their behalf.

Developing youth leaders evolves out of Friends’ work with our current youth members.  Youth involved in the criminal justice system are overlooked as a source of peer and community leadership, yet no on can be a more persuasive role model for at-risk adolescents than their peers, by demonstrating the value and acknowledging the implications of making positive choices.

The voices of our youth are also markedly absent from local and state decision-making.  We train young people to share their own voices and perspectives at community board meetings, with elected officials, and in other arenas.  When youth leaders speak in schools, their personal stories inspire young people to avoid similar pitfalls and choose wisely from the beginning.  When addressing policy makers, they give human voice to the statistics on the page.

If you would like to set up a presentation by our Youth Leaders in your neighborhood, school or other place of business, please contact Andre Obasogie at 212-760-0755 or aobasogie@friendsny.org.