[From Our Partners] Youth Opportunity Hubs: Mid-Evaluation Report
Fostering Collaboration. Building Resilience.
Across New York City, many young people are in need of youth-centered spaces that meet their diverse needs and draw on and lift up their strengths. Unfortunately, funding constraints of the social service system often lead to siloes between organizations, making it difficult for youth to access all of the services available to them. The Youth Opportunity Hubs, opened in 2017, were created to address these challenges and better serve young people.
Five lead organizations (The Door, Henry Street Settlement, Living Redemption, New York-Presbyterian, and Union Settlement) in Manhattan were selected to open Youth Opportunity Hubs in collaboration with partner organizations in four neighborhoods—East Harlem, Central and West Harlem, Washington Heights, and The Lower East Side—which have experienced disproportionate rates of involvement in the criminal-legal system.
Hubs use a trauma-informed, positive youth development framework to provide comprehensive services to young people ages 13-24. By offering opportunities and emphasizing young people’s strengths, the Hubs aim to address both risk and protective factors—including in such areas as health, educational attainment, household income, and connections to school or work—and reduce the likelihood that youth will have interactions with the criminal legal system.
This report highlights mid-evaluation findings related to the ongoing process evaluation conducted by Westat and Metis Associates of the Youth Opportunity Hubs initiative.