YOUTH COLLABORATORY INC
106 Isabella Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 www.youthcollaboratory.org

---

Organizations Filed Purposes: Youth Collaboratory harnesses the power of the youth services community to innovate, evaluate, and drive effective strategies that assure the safety and well-being of youth and young adults, unlocking their limitless potential.

Mentoring+: Individual, social, and environmental risk factors increase the likelihood that young people are at risk of victimization, delinquency, or involvement in the juvenile justice system. The Mentoring+ program uses evidence-based practices to reduce these risk factors and increase protective factors that build resiliency. Relationship building through mentoring enhances young people's assets, explores their strengths, and develops lasting connections to family, peers, and others.Organizations using the Mentoring+ model have experienced a number of promising outcomes, including: 99% of mentees have not offended or re-offended, 99% of mentees maintained school enrollment, 80% mentor retention rates, and 84% of mentees demonstrated increased social competence.Today, our 81 Mentoring+ chapters are in 37 states and together they serve over 160,000 youth and families annually.

Youth Collaboratory works on behalf of organizations and professionals striving to improve the lives of at-risk young people and their families in communities across the US.Through targeted technical assistance, intensive training, and strategic national partnerships, we enhance and support over 3,000 youth-serving organizations nationwide. Our nationwide network of members across 48 states allows us to detect issues affecting youth across the country as they emerge. In turn, we work across sectors to develop innovative responses that can be implemented in local communities in real-time.From program consultation to funding procurement, Youth Collaboratory operates to help youth-serving organizations focus on one goal: strengthening outcomes for youth and young adults in high-risk situations.In the United States, there are very few issues facing our youth that are more serious or pervasive than homelessness. A 2017 study from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago found that 4.2 million young adults experience homelessness each year, 700,000 of whom are minors. A wide body of research has demonstrated these youth experience significant challenges impacting their health, well-being, and academic success including significantly high rates of victimization, exploitation, and trafficking. Unfortunately, the number of youth experiencing homelessness each year in this nation far exceeds our current resources. Currently, only 35% of homeless youth seeking housing are being served, leaving 65% to languish on the streets. The small percentage who are served wait, on average, 5 months before receiving housing support. Furthermore, recent research has revealed how inadequate response systems are not only perpetuating homelessness but contributing to national increases in the number of youth who are homeless each year.Youth Collaboratory has focused on reversing this trend; working with homeless youth providers, advocates, researchers, government agencies, philanthropists, and young people to design coordinated community systems that prevent and end youth homelessness. To improve community responses, Youth Collaboratory is currently: Distilling High-Impact Components: Identifying components of coordinated responses that have the strongest impact on a community's ability to work smarter and faster.Assessing High-Impact Components: Completing baseline assessments in at least 60 communities that will identify which high-impact components (if any) are being implemented, their readiness level to implement any components not currently in place (e.g. access to data), blocks/barriers to implementation, and perceived incentives to move along the continuum.Developing a National Strategy: Facilitating development of national impact objectives and aligning multiple initiatives across national partners (including federal departments) into a centralized strategy supporting community uptake.Influencing Structural Advocacy: Monitoring, informing, and influencing funding, policy and regulations to maximize the momentum of community uptake.Providing National Coordination: Coordinating alignment of national efforts across government agencies, advocates, researchers, philanthropists, young people, and other national organizations to support large-scale uptake.

Mentoring Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (MCSEC): Human sex trafficking is an issue that touches communities across the world. In the USA alone, it is estimated that 100,000 to 300,000 youth are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic sex trafficking (CSE/DST) each year.In response to this epidemic, Youth Collaboratory partners with subject matter experts to create targeted enhancements for mentoring programs that serve this population. Under this initiative, Youth Collaboratory supports 1) the development and enhancement of mentoring service models and mentor training based on best practices to focus on the needs of youth who are at risk or are victims of CSE/DST; 2) the development or enhancement of strategies to recruit and maintain mentors to serve under identified and underserved populations; and, 3) efforts to identify and enroll youth who are in need of services, and provide needed services to these youth.

---

---

Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (public 990 form dataset) from: https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202140989349300234_public.xml