Founded by youth workers in the South End/Lower Roxbury as a way to collaborate and combat challenges facing youth, the Youth Workers' Alliance is an innovative grassroots organization for youth workers, with potential to create a sustainable model for the future of youth work, in Boston.
The YWA serves two critical functions in the community:
- We help coordinate services across youth-serving agencies in order to promote collaboration and community building;
- We provide a professional association for youth workers, in order to develop and support high quality youth workers for our community. Involving over 150 youth workers from more than 45 agencies that work with young people ages 6-21, the Youth Workers' Alliance maximizes the services for the 5,000 young people in our community and develops the professional workforce for youth-serving agencies.
The youth in the South End/Lower Roxbury primarily live in the 14 subsidized housing developments in our community, and 91% of youth under 18 in our community are people of color. The YWA mirrors the young people in our diversity: we are 61% women; 46% Black, 16% Latino, and 23% White. The YWA is a membership organization, with leadership elected from among our members.
Mission
Our mission is to support youth workers to promote the well-being of the community's young people through collaborative activities such as information-sharing, skill-building, problem-solving, leadership development and issue-oriented advocacy.
Goals
The goals of the YWA are:
- build and support a professional community of youth workers;
- advocate for increased community investment in youth issues;
- develop and support youth workers as non-profit and community-conscious leaders; and
- advance the field of youth work.
Read more about the YWA!
- About the YWA
- History and Goals
- Projects and Committees
- Join!
