Solar Youth

YOUTH PARTICIPATION Maintain a menu of Solar Youth’s Cycle of Stewardship programs, serving 150 youth annually
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Continue to meet our commitment to ensuring teens are put on a path to self-sufficiency through Youth Educator Internships, Green Jobs Program and the Empowerment Team
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT Teen interns will develop employability skills such as timeliness, public speaking, personal financial management, work ethic and a commitment to excellence, and stay on track to graduate from high school with a concrete plan for college or career after graduation.
COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION Youth will complete at least 40 Community Service Action projects per year increasing their environmental knowledge and commitment to environmental stewardship

Over the past 22 years, Solar Youth has built a track record as one of New Haven’s most promising solutions for empowering low-income youth. Working in New Haven’s hardest-hit neighborhoods—Solar Youth delivers long-term mentoring, education, and support services to children starting at age 5 through high school.

In programs customized for different age cohorts, Solar Youth creates opportunity for inner-city youth to explore the natural world in and outside their neighborhoods. In the process, they learn core concepts of stewardship, leadership, non-violent communication and mindfulness. Programs are at no cost to families, and take place during and after school, on weekends and holidays, and throughout the summer.

Over the past 22 years, Solar Youth has built a track record as one of New Haven’s most promising solutions for empowering low-income youth. Working in New Haven’s hardest-hit neighborhoods—Solar Youth delivers long-term mentoring, education, and support services to children starting at age 4 through high school. Solar Youth’s achieves this mission through long-term supportive relationships and programs that incorporate environmental exploration, youth-led problem-solving, and youth leadership!
No one goes to school for what we do and how we do it. Therefore, Solar Youth staff receive multidisciplinary trainings to support their mastery of our core program elements, as well as to have a deep understanding of the youth we work with, their challenges and how to nurture their strengths. Trainings include trauma informed care, youth mental health, positive youth development, environmental education, nonviolent communication, mindfulness theory and practice, and more.

Since our founding, more than 3,500 youth have participated in Solar Youth, we have offered 650 seasonal internships to teenagers and completed over 550 youth service projects. Youth continue to perform C-SAPs (community service action projects) which include neighborhood beautification and river/watershed clean-ups, advocacy projects and others. Our Empowerment Team has worked with over 150 youth including creating employment/career plans for those youth graduating high school. Youth have benefited from additional experiences such as Winter Explorers which keeps youth engaged with the outdoors even during the cold winter months.

Future goals include continuing and expanding our unique and comprehensive program model as well as implementing system improvements including a consultant to maximize use of Salesforce and continued development of our External Relations processes to create more stability for our core programs and build capacity to grow.