Building Youth-Centered Communities

We believe that equitable access to services, spaces, and systems that are youth-centered, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed leads to greater health and well-being for young people.

Young people grow to adulthood within a complex web of family, peer, community, societal, and cultural influences that affect their present and future health and well-being. Advancing their health and well-being requires improving their daily lives within family, friend groups, and neighborhoods, as well as addressing risk and protective factors at the environmental and community levels. Young people are better able to achieve their full potential when individuals, organizations, and communities work together to support them.

Equitable access to high-quality health services is essential for young people to thrive. In many communities, health services for adolescents are fragmented and focused on the needs of adults. Young people benefit from having access to providers who understand adolescent development and are culturally competent. They also require services that are accessible, convenient, and confidential.

Young people need and want safe places to gather, enjoy social, athletic, and other recreational activities, be with their peers, and engage in civic and community pursuits. The actual or perceived physical and emotional safety of community spaces can influence how comfortable young people feel using them. This is an especially important consideration for supporting young people who face disproportionate risks associated with environmental hurdles like crime, violence, abuse, trauma, prejudice, and racism.

As they approach adulthood, young people face increasing pressure to manage their own health, finances, transportation, and housing. These expectations do not always come with corresponding increases in support. Many young people also lack opportunities to build needed skills to transition to adulthood and navigate complex systems. Adding to the challenge, systems that serve adolescents can be confusing and spread across government agencies, nonprofit organizations, healthcare providers, businesses, and faith-based organizations.

When a community commits to building youth-centered communities and systems, a lack of funding to transform physical spaces, increase organizational capacity to serve young people, and staff collaborative and system-level change efforts can stifle progress. Increased investments in supporting communities as they approach this work are necessary for the optimal development of our young people. 

To support communities in creating equitable access to services, spaces, and systems that are youth-centered, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed, we will fund organizations that create the conditions young people need to:

• Receive youth-centered physical and behavioral healthcare
• Experience safe, inclusive spaces designed to foster social connections and promote positive health outcomes
• Successfully transition into adulthood
• Experience coordinated systems of care — especially for those with complex needs who seek services across multiple systems — that are informed by young people and their families