Youth Collaboratory Inc

Building Community: Several 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. Youth Collaboratory supports organizations in utilizing evidence-based community building practices to reduce these risk factors and increase protective factors that build resiliency. This includes leveraging formal and informal mentoring relationships to broaden connections to other networks, supports, and opportunities for young people. Grounded in evidence-based practice and a Positive Youth Development framework, Youth Collaboratory created the Mentoring+ program model. This model supports building communities with young people. Organizations using the Mentoring+ model have experienced several promising outcomes, including: 100% of mentees at high risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system have not offended or re-offended, 97% of mentors maintained a relationship with a mentee for at least a year, and 75% of mentees demonstrated increased social competence. Through this work, Youth Collaboratory has supported programs in 37 states who serve more than 160,000 youth and families annually.

Preventing and Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking: Human sex trafficking is an issue that impacts 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 enhances the capacity of organizations to prevent and address sexual exploitation and domestic sex trafficking of minors. We utilize a comprehensive continuum of integrated training, technical assistance (T&TA), and support that was carefully designed in response to the key obstacles programs face in preventing and addressing exploitation and trafficking.This includes strengthening resources focused on vulnerable communities and populations who are impacted. In active collaboration with young people with lived expertise, Youth Collaboratory provides direct support to community-based agencies and creates tools and resources for the field that are disseminated nationally.

Membership and Consulting - Youth Collaboratory offers a way for individuals and organizations to benefit from deeper engagement with their services through membership and technical assistance.