Foundations and Principles for Funding Youth Development: Lessons Learned from the Youth Opportunity Hubs Initiative
By Patrick Hart, Program Director and Neal Palmer, Research Project Director
Beginning in 2017, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative created five Youth Opportunity Hubs in focus neighborhoods across Manhattan. The goal of these Hubs was to
provide holistic supports and opportunities to young people;
improve the spaces where young people spend time; and
break down service siloes and bridge relationships across the city’s many youth-serving organizations.
As we documented previously, the Hubs have brought important benefits to young people and their communities, including a greater sense of safety, well-being, and opportunity. For funders and policymakers who are looking to support young people and increase cross-sector collaboration, the evaluation of the Youth Opportunity Hubs initiative points to key lessons including:
Center programming in youth-responsive wraparound services
Invest in data capacity and infrastructure
Fund partnerships directly
Support learning communities
Fund improvements to, and expansions of, program spaces
Invest in youth-responsive wraparound services
The Hubs invested specifically in holistic needs and opportunities that transcend typical organizational boundaries. They were responsible for meeting needs pertaining to education, employment, prosocial development and relationships, health, and other areas. Within these areas, as Hubs developed service offerings and organizational ties, they incorporated youth voice and feedback into the process, which reflected their diverse backgrounds and needs. Youth also had a voice in setting their individual goals, and staff met youth “where they are” to help them grow.
We had to include the young people in the decision-making for what their immediate needs are. [In their individual success plans] they’re able to contribute to what they believe they should work on, what they want to work on…so they can feel the value. They can buy into what we offer. It might be they want to learn to drive and get a driver’s license. It might be they want to move and become independent, get their own apartment. We would talk over these topics. We would have workshops around those topics and then group mentoring sessions. (Living Redemption staff)
Invest in data capacity and learning
Many funders ask for evidence of success, but too often they do not fund the data staffing, capacity, and training needed to provide that evidence. In the process, they may leave programs unable to demonstrate the true impact of their work. Critically, funding must support the data system itself as well as initial and ongoing training and staffing to truly optimize the impact of internal data monitoring. A shared data management system can be critical for programs and funders working across organizational boundaries, but these systems require even greater resources as well as attention to data-sharing agreements and other barriers.
Yes, there's concrete successes when someone achieves something tangible like a high school diploma or an HSE or a college diploma or a job or certification and/or the concrete things of getting their health under control because now they're taking their medicine more regularly and/or getting them into a safe and stable home or where they can pay their rent. There are concrete achievements there that I couldn't even tell you the numbers, but certainly there are numerous young people that we've helped in that capacity. But then I think there's also the more nuanced successes that the numbers won't reveal. (Henry Street staff)
Fund partnerships directly
One of the key tenets of the Hubs was partnerships, which is also a consistent theme of the Hubs evaluation. Hubs lead organizations and partners collaborated for such purposes as making referrals, facilitating warm handoffs from one organization to another, sharing information and resources, co-locating with each other, staffing positions/liaisons across organizations, participating in coordination meetings, hosting community events, and more. That said, this level of collaboration requires time/funding, and it is rare for the city to directly fund partnerships. Therefore, the city and other funders should increase their funding to partnership support directly (i.e., paying for the cost of coordination itself) and also allow partners the flexibility to develop the programmatic and reporting relationships that work for them.
The co-locating is a huge thing for us. It’s really the first time that we’ve even done this much co-locating with other service providers, and we’ve learned a ton from that. (The Door staff)
A lot of times young people would get a sort of roundtable experience from all of us. Because we were so close and connected, young people would come in and just start talking, and we would realize that they need all of us…So even though it wasn’t a formal referral, it would be an informal referral because a young person would walk in and be like, ‘What is this room?’ And they we would explain to them what we do, and then they would tell us what they need. (The Door partner)
Support learning communities
ISLG supported the development of learning communities throughout the Hubs initiative, particularly through quarterly meetings specifically for Hub leaders, which included sharing best practices and challenges. Additionally, ISLG worked to build a broader learning community across CJII through the Training and Technical Assistance initiative, which every Hub took part in at some point. A few Hubs (The Door and Living Redemption) also participated as peer TTA leaders, delivering well-received trainings to CJII partners on youth services, adjusting to COVID-19, and other topics.
The Hubs evaluation recommended a continued cycle of learning and quality improvements. This could include conversations and learning opportunities within an organization/network, such as regular partner/stakeholder meetings; it could also include conversations and learning opportunities across organizations and their partners. Finally, the evaluation recommends sharing the learnings beyond the Hub Initiative with the larger youth programming field through publications such as a formal partnership guide. Collectively, this work can be supported through provider convenings (either in-person or virtual), digital platforms for communication and resource sharing between providers, and creating and distributing guides for doing this work.
We try the best we can to have those hard conversations [with partner organizations] to address that difference of opinion or experience or what have you. But we've also had check-in meetings where we've said, ‘okay this is what we view to be the criteria for a strong partnership. Here's what our needs are as supervisors of the social worker in your space.’ (Henry Street staff)
Fund program spaces
Building welcoming program spaces was a goal of the Hubs from the start, and four of the Hubs completed capital improvement projects. These projects ranged from developing a whole new community space for the Uptown Hub at New York Presbyterian Hospital to a complete renovation of a NYCHA community space in East Harlem for the Union Settlement Hub. Given that funders rarely invest in capital improvements, this funding had a transformational impact. It is challenging for grassroots organizations to obtain and implement capital funding, so funders should look for innovative ways to fund these program spaces and support organizations that are intentional (as the Hubs have been) in creating them.
I think the number one goal would be to create that physical space for the youth of the community to be able to feel like they’re home, a space where they can be their truest and bravest selves, and they can be engaged creatively in different activities, so to foster that sense of community with the youth of the Washington Heights area. (NYP partner)
About the Program and Evaluation
Since their inception, Hubs have helped youth thrive and helped organizations work more effectively together. The Hubs outcome evaluation and cost study is underway; the findings will be published in 2023. Learn more in the Hubs mid-evaluation report, including process evaluation findings, and accompanying articles.
About the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative (CJII) focuses on three investment areas—crime prevention, reentry and diversion, and supports for survivors of crime. The Youth Opportunity Hubs are part of the CJII’s crime prevention-focused investments in Youth, Families, and Communities.
The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance manages and provides technical assistance to CJII contractors, and conducts oversight and performance measurement throughout the lifetime of the initiative.