The Windham County Youth Initiative History

In April 2002, United Way of Windham County published the Windham County Community Assessment to gain perspective on the wellbeing of people in the county from birth through old age. The data revealed that young people in the county are having a harder time in areas such as substance use, participation in out of school activities, and completing high school compared to their peers around the state. As a result of these findings, United Way in partnership with Alliance for Building Community, other youth serving organizations and local foundations, began the Windham County Youth Initiative.

Over sixty community members came together in the initial stages of creating the Youth Initiative. With broad community input, outcomes for our community's youth were created, as well as action strategies to achieve these outcomes.

          Mission and Vision

The Youth Initiative strives to mobilize and enhance the efforts of individuals and gropus within Windham County communities to ensure the health, well being and long-term success of all young people, thus realizing our vision: thriving youth - strong communitites.

          Community Wide Outcomes

Youth are empowered

The Youth Initiative works to ensure that young people have meaningful roles within their community, are involved in decision making that affects them and feel valued by their community. 

Youth Choose Healthy Behaviors
The Youth Initiative works to ensure that all young people have access to enriching and fun activities out side of school where they can build positive relationships with adults and peers while expanding their knowledge, skills and awareness.

The Youth Initiative's approach encompasses the following

four categories:

Education Everyone can play a role in helping kids grow up to be emotionally, socially and physically healthy. Presentations, videos, brochures, and a web site are available to provide community members with the knowledge they need to help the positive development of all young people.

 

Collaboration By working together, community members can utilize existing comprehensive resources to more effectively reach young people. The Youth Initiative helps coordinate collaborative alliances, bringing key stakeholders to the table around specific issues as well as building connections between organizations, individuals, businesses, schools, civic groups, government, and churches.

 

Clearinghouse There is a vast amount of information (data, opportunities, needs, etc.) that the Youth Initiative is continually being made aware of. By sorting through this information and making the appropriate connections with groups and individuals, the Youth Initiative serves to ensure a productive and positive community impact.

 

Evaluation Measuring the results of our work confirms our effectiveness and informs future actions. Education and support is available to all youth-serving organizations regarding the evaluation of programs and partnerships.