It is with extreme excitement that we announce our selection into the youthCONNECT Network in partnership with the Corporation for Community and National Service and Venture Philanthropy Partners. This partnership will provide Urban Alliance with the resources to expand our impact and serve more than twice as many youth annually within five years.
Urban Alliance, alongside College Summit, KIPP DC, Latin American Youth Center, Metro Teen AIDS, and Year Up will work to collectively combat barriers to success for our most vulnerable youth in the National Capital Region. The ultimate goal: To increase education and employment outcomes of up to 20,000 low income youth in the National Capital Region.
Through this partnership, Urban Alliance receives a commitment of $719,000 over the next two years. The network will focus on achieving ambitious outcomes. If outcomes are reached, the total commitment to Urban Alliance could be extended three additional years resulting in an overall commitment of over $2 million.
Please see the press release below for more details.
VPP Invests $1.4M in Metro TeenAIDS and Urban Alliance to Serve 3,000 Youth
Winners Join Network of High-Performing Nonprofits
to Help Low-Income Youth Reach Successful Adulthood
Contact: Victoria Vrana for VPP
(202) 263-4789 (office)
(301) 704-0998 (cell)
vvrana@vppartners.org
(Washington, D.C., March XX, 2011) Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) announced today an investment of $1.4 million over two years in Metro TeenAIDS and Urban Alliance to serve 3,000 young people in Washington, D.C. with exceptional health education and workforce development programming. These organizations will join four other nonprofits selected by VPP in the summer of 2010 in youthCONNECT, an integrated effort to address the multi-faceted challenges facing low-income youth, ages 14-24, in the National Capital Region.
Today in the National Capital Region, approximately 135,000 low-income youth are struggling to transition to a thriving adulthood. Partners in youthCONNECT share a goal of expanding to provide 20,000 at-risk youth over the next five years with a variety of education and employment services.
For the youthCONNECT initiative, Venture Philanthropy Partners combines $4 million of its own capital with $4 million in funding from the Social Innovation Fund, a new federal initiative designed to direct public and private funds toward the expansion of effective solutions to the toughest challenges faced by communities. Each nonprofit in youthCONNECT is providing a $1 for $1 match to its award from additional funders.
“We have many programs working in isolation in our region, but few overarching solutions. We believe that by funders and nonprofits aligning their action towards shared goals, we can create meaningful, measurable change in the lives of thousands of youth,” said Carol Thompson Cole, President and CEO of Venture Philanthropy Partners. “The youthCONNECT network provides a catalyst for collective effort in our region and a backbone upon which future efforts can grow.”
Metro TeenAIDS and Urban Alliance were selected through an open competition process to join youthCONNECT because of their outstanding results for low-income youth, their ability to demonstrate evidence of effectiveness, the strength of their evaluation plans, and the complementary services they bring to the other nonprofits in the network.
Metro TeenAIDS promotes responsible decision-making among youth through education, outreach, and advocacy. With a two-year investment of $635,000, Metro TeenAIDS will contribute to youthCONNECT by:
- Providing sex and health education to over 2,250 students at DC public charter schools; and
- Training over 200 public charter school staff to be effective health educators.
Urban Alliance prepares high school students for the world of work by placing them into paid internships during the school year and the summer. With a two-year investment of $719,000, Urban Alliance will contribute to youthCONNECT by:
- Expanding its internship program by over 40%; and
- Almost doubling its alumni services outreach, from 140 to 275 annually.
VPP has committed $10 million to youthCONNECT over the next five years. In addition to expanding individual effective programs that help youth become successful adults, the nonprofits in youthCONNECT will each undergo a rigorous evaluation to create further evidence about what works in the fields of education, workforce development, and youth development. youthCONNECT network partners will also share performance data and use similar metrics to measure their program results in order to support collaboration and strengthen accountability.
“Metro TeenAIDS and Urban Alliance are an important addition to the youthCONNECT network,” said Marc Schindler, VPP Partner and leader of the youthCONNECT initiative. “They both bring critical components to the network, deep experience in collaborative efforts, the respect of the community and fellow network partners, and will complement the work being done by the other youthCONNECT nonprofits—College Summit-NCR, KIPP DC, the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), and Year Up-NCR.”
The other four nonprofits in youthCONNECT provide services that address different challenges for young people:
- College Summit-NCR partners with schools to create a college-going culture;
- KIPP DC is a network of college-preparatory charter schools in DC, which serves the city’s poorest communities;
- LAYC provides culturally competent services to disconnected youth; and
- Year Up-NCR places disconnected youth into corporate internships and helps put them on the track to post-secondary education.
These four organizations were pre-selected as members of the network during the application to the Social Innovation Fund, which was established as a part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and is administered by the Corporation for Community and National Service.
For more information, please visit: http://www.vppartners.org/portfolio/youthconnect
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About Venture Philanthropy Partners
Venture Philanthropy Partners is a nonprofit philanthropic investment organization that helps great leaders grow promising programs to serve more children and youth of low-income families. It concentrates investments of money, expertise, and leverage to improve lives and boost the opportunities for children and youth in the National Capital Region. VPP also cultivates an engaged donor community to generate funding and influence in support of these institutions and of social change. For more information, visit www.vppartners.org.
About the Corporation for National and Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.
About the Social Innovation Fund
The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service that improves the lives of people in low-income U.S. communities. Through an innovative public-private partnership, the Social Innovation Fund and selected local and national grantmakers co-invest in programs that increase the scale of community-based solutions that have evidence of real impact in the areas of youth development, economic opportunity or healthy futures. Every Federal dollar invested is matched with private funds, and all programs are rigorously evaluated. As a result, the most effective approaches can be expanded to reach more people in need and key lessons can be captured and broadly shared. To learn more visit www.NationalService.gov/Innovation.