Youth Alliance

Reaching Out & Making a Difference

Youth Alliance (YA) is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization with programs  in San Benito County, Gilroy, & Morgan Hill, CA which strives to create thriving and equitable communities. We accomplish this by providing comprehensive, innovative and culturally relevant services that equip youth and families to become change agents in their own lives and in their community. The agency was founded in 1995 and began as a grassroots effort of committed volunteers and has evolved into an agency that benefits over 6,500 children, youth, and their families each year.

Youth Alliance has successfully led community engagement and youth organizing in high need parks and neighborhoods, provides the only pregnancy prevention programs in the communities we serve, and leads South Santa Clara school efforts to bring in restorative justice practices which support student achievement and educational equity.

YA’s success is evident in our Safe Schools and Safe Neighborhoods Outreach like Restorative Justice and Ollin Circles, which redefine our approach to safe schools and youth interventions.  The Youth Advocates and Pregnancy Prevention Peer Educators, empower youth to champion critical social equity issues. Their advocacy has resulted in policy initiatives leading directly to the establishment and then election of a YA Youth Advocate as the first Youth Commissioner in the City of Hollister and championing advocacy for free youth recreation programs.  The Youth Alliance also diversified our outreach through science and health focused summer camps, such as the Health Squad, and by expansion of our visual and performing arts curriculum that promoted awareness of important youth topics that included youth developing and performing their own play in rural under-resourced schools.

At the Youth Alliance, we believe large community problems are best addressed through healing rooted in cultural principles supporting personal, family, and community transformation.  Our work is steeped in bridging cross-cultural connections and inter-generational understanding that inspires hope, innovation, and action such as our Joven Noble program where 82% of the youth served said the program kept them out of trouble.  We provide avenues that connect caring and knowledgeable adults with children, teens, and parents in need as evidenced by the 1,480 1st to 8th graders served daily by our CASA de Milagros and Power School after school programs where 95% surveyed showed an increased connection to a caring adult.  The Youth Alliance creates circles of support and kinship that promote healing, empowerment, and ultimately, a more vibrant community.  A large part of this success is due to the hard work of our incredibly dedicated staff—many whom first came to the Youth Alliance through our programs.  They are a testament to the success of our practices.

We are grateful for your support and the trust and confidence of the community.  88% of every dollar the Youth Alliance receives goes directly to our programs.  We are especially inspired by the young people we work with every day.  When youth come back and tell us how much our support made a difference in their lives, we know we are on the right track. But, there is still much to do, and many more young people to reach.

When you donate to the Youth Alliance you help create a reality where success is not measured in examples of ‘beating the odds,’ but rather in creating communities with multiple pathways of opportunity for all youth.