YOUTHCARE

YouthCare works to end youth homelessness and to ensure that young people are valued for who they are and empowered to achieve their potential. Founded in 1974, YouthCare was one of the first shelters to serve runaway and homeless youth on the West Coast. The goal was to help young people find safety today and build a future for tomorrow. This passionate vision—where no young person experiences homelessness, all young people can thrive, and the systems that oppress them are dismantled—drives YouthCare every day. Over four decades, YouthCare has defined best practices and developed programs that set a national standard for excellence.

YouthCare currently operates 14 sites across Seattle and serves over 1,500 young people every year. Each young person receives individualized, comprehensive care tailored to their unique needs and goals. Through comprehensive services, including outreach, prevention, shelter, housing, education, and employment training, as well as a range of community partnerships, such as legal aid, behavioral healthcare, and post-secondary support, YouthCare ensures that young people experiencing homelessness have the hope, skills, and self-confidence needed to achieve long-term stability.

YouthCare’s service are responsive to the unique needs and goals of each young person we meet. For some, quick support—a hot meal, a chat with staff, a visit to the clinic—may be all that’s needed to help them move forward. For others, the path to stability will look different. YouthCare provides individualized services—from prevention and early engagement, to education and employment training—tailored to each young person’s needs, ensuring that young people experiencing homelessness have all the resources and skills necessary to achieve long-term stability.

YouthCare’s prevention programs support youth at risk of experiencing homelessness, with the goal of heading off the life-altering trauma and danger of the streets altogether. Our outreach and engagement teams meet homeless young people where they are, providing meals, hot showers, clean clothing, first aid and hygiene items, a medical clinic, and a place to feel safe. Staff build trust with young people and help them plan their next steps. In YouthCare’s network of housing and shelter, young people build independent living skills and a stable foundation from which to pursue education and employment opportunities that lead to thriving independence. Our education programs offer flexible and individualized high school diploma and GED programs designed to help young people reconnect to school and work toward post-secondary options. Employment Programs engage youth in job-readiness and career-track trainings. Youth earn wages as they learn marketable skills, earn industry certifications, write résumés, practice interviewing, and engage in community service. Across programs, Case Managers introduce young people to key services, support them in obtaining needed documents, develop safety plans and goals, and mentor them as they move forward.

YouthCare’s 14 sites and 200+ staff serve 1,500 young people each year.

In 2018, YouthCare delivered basic needs services to over 1,100 young people and served more than 37,000 meals at our engagement centers. YouthCare provided emergency shelter to 737 clients; our community housing programs helped 82 clients; and our independent living programs assisted 84 clients. 255 youth received community-based case management services from YouthCare. Our education programs supported 93 youth; 31 students obtained their GED or high school diploma; and 51 clients entered post-secondary education. In our employment training programs, 100 young people obtained local jobs or internships; 74 youth participated in pre-employment programs; 98 young people participated in sector-based employment trainings, and 63% of sector-based employment training graduates obtained employment upon program completion.

YouthCare has been providing services to young people experiencing homelessness in Seattle/King County, WA, for 45 years. Established in 1974 as a 3-bed shelter for runaway and homeless youth, YouthCare has since grown into a 501(c)(3) organization with a $16 million annual operating budget and 14 sites serving the greater Seattle area. YouthCare added street outreach services in 1979, opened its first engagement center in 1984, began offering transitional housing in 1988, started its first employment training program in 1995, developed comprehensive education services in 2008, and launched homelessness prevention services in 2011. Our set of services for sexually exploited youth is a national model for serving this population. YouthCare's Isis at Ravenna House, a housing program responding to the needs of homeless LGBTQ youth, was the first of its kind in the western US and has been replicated in other West Coast cities. In 2017, YouthCare doubled the number of emergency shelter beds for minors ages 12-17 in Seattle with the opening of the Paul G. Allen Hope Center at YouthCare. YouthCare works to continue being a leader in the field of youth homelessness, incorporating and sharing best practices to achieve the best outcomes for young people.

Over the next three years, YouthCare’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan will guide the agency’s work. This plan sharpens our focus, deepens our impact, and clarifies our values and practices so that we are best prepared to fulfill our mission and make a positive impact for young people. Distinct goals called out in the strategic plan to help increase long-term stability and positive outcomes for youth include: provide more individualized pathways to employability through comprehensive and diverse employment programming across all locations and programs; create more opportunities for youth to re-engage with education and improve educational outcomes; expand employment and education services into a second location to provide next-level employment and education programming; develop housing services that lead to self-sufficiency; develop a centralized, high-intensity case management program; reduce disproportionality; and leverage data to drive decision-making, program enhancements, and operational adjustments.

Everyone has the right to a place they can call home. All young people deserve a secure, stable, and healthy environment. The young people we serve are navigating a challenging set of life circumstances, including numerous systemic and institutional barriers, in their pursuit of safety, a chance to stabilize their lives, and a future full of opportunity. YouthCare’s work is hopeful and provides each young person we meet with a chance to heal, to truly thrive, and to reach their full potential.