Youth In Need

Youth In Need’s primary goal is to build on the strengths of children, youth and families so they find safety, hope and success in life through services and programs that embrace a strengths-based approach and the values of integrity, respect and excellence. Youth In Need fulfills its mission by developing and maintaining a professional and trained staff, a strong network of volunteers, dedicated leadership on the agency’s Board of Directors, and a committed group of donors who partner to support families as they work to achieve their goals.

Youth In Need's 2018 expected outcomes are as follows:

Emergency Shelter for Youth in Crisis:
• Serve 250 unduplicated youth
• 90% will discharge to a safe environment
• 70% will indicate improved well-being
• 80% will be reunited with their families, when appropriate, as defined at intake

Foster Care and Adoption Program:
• Serve 75 unduplicated youth
• 0.3% or less will have substantiated child abuse/neglect reports while in care
• 8% or less will re-enter state custody

Head Start and Early Head Start:
• Serve 1,300 unduplicated children
• 90% of four-year old pre-school children will be on target for school readiness
• 10% of enrollment will include children with a diagnosed disability

Counseling Services:
• Serve 2,900 unduplicated children and youth
• 70% will demonstrate improved school engagement and performance
• 70% will indicate improved well-being

Street-Based Outreach Program for Runaway and Homeless Youth:
• Transition 200 youth to safety

Teen Parent Program:
• Serve 120 unduplicated youth
• 80% will have a healthy pregnancy
• 70% will progress toward completing an educational program

Transitional Living Program for Runaway and Homeless Youth:
• Serve 24 unduplicated youth
• 70% will indicate improved well-being
• 85% will increase their knowledge of essential life skills
• 30% will successfully transition to independence upon discharge

Youth In Need is exceptionally positioned to deliver successful outcomes and significant community impact in the region. Youth In Need employs a unifying approach and core organizational values with a commitment to a client-centered, strengths-based philosophy that mirrors the research-based positive youth development approach approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This approach assumes that all clients, no matter their challenges or past failures, have the capacity to make decisions and take actions to improve their lives. This core value of utilizing a strengths-based philosophy begins with staff hiring and orientation, and is implemented through carefully designed programs that are continually measured and evaluated with quality metrics. The resulting environment is one in which staff morale and creativity is optimized, client ownership of growth is maximized, and resulting outcomes are significant and lasting.

Youth In Need's services include Head Start and Early Head Start early childhood education; individual, family and school-based counseling
services, including crisis counseling; foster care case management; teen parent programming and other support groups; positive youth development programs and crisis prevention presentations; crisis emergency shelter for abused and neglected children and youth; mobile street outreach programming for runaway and homeless youth, including victims of sex trafficking; and transitional and independent housing programs for runaway and homeless youth that includes educational and job training preparation; foster care case management. Youth In Need is the regional provider of the National Safe Place program as well as the front door for the Youth Coordinated Entry Systems for the St. Louis City, St. Louis County and Tri-County (St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren) Continuums of Care around the issue of homelessness.

Youth In Need remains entirely focused on leveraging our services and programs to produce the best possible community impact and outcomes:
• Stabilizing runaway youth and reuniting them with their families
• Helping older homeless youth achieve self-sufficiency
• Stabilizing children in foster care and reuniting them with their families
• Improving healthy coping behaviors among at-risk youth
• Improving positive relationships with children and families
• High school dropouts securing jobs and re-entering school or GED programs
• Improving social and school success among abuse victims
• Improving behavior and family success among juvenile offenders
• Teaching teen parents effective parenting skills and helping them remain in school
• Fostering successful developmental milestones and early school success for children in low-income families
• Improving parenting skills and family stability among low-income parents