Emerald Youth Foundation

Emerald Youth is focused on growing youth into promising, Godly, young adult leaders and engaging them relationally in the areas of faith development, learning, and health. Our 2027 goal is that 20% of urban Knoxville youth will be relationally and comprehensively engaged in programs to achieve faith, learning, and health outcomes, including annually producing 200 promising, Godly, young adult leaders for Knoxville. We define a promising, Godly, young adult leader as a person who is: on track to complete two years of post-secondary education or training; confidently moving toward gainful employment and community leadership; and, showing evidences of a lifestyle with exemplary behaviors regarding academics, spiritual maturity, and health.

For Emerald Youth Foundation, youth development is a long-term, relational response to young people, focused on preparing youth to be ready to accept adult roles and responsibilities. We accomplish this most readily when youth are comprehensively engaged with us. This means that we are relationally engaging them in their development in faith, learning, and health, and these areas are measured and illustrated in our Youth Development Pipeline: the outcomes we aim to achieve, the ways we are trying to achieve them, and the metrics that keep us accountable and help us gauge how we are doing. The metrics reflect what existing research has shown to be critical milestones for youth to progress from one stage of development to the next.

We operate our JustLead, Calling & Career and Emerald Youth Sports programs at locations throughout urban Knoxville, intentionally serving in communities with significant economic and social needs. We partner with churches and other organizations in our inner-city neighborhoods for ease of access for participating families and to strengthen connections to other resources and supports in these neighborhoods. We do this because youth development research stresses the importance of being geographically focused and serving all who live in the area. A robust group of full- and part-time employees, AmeriCorps members, and hundreds of volunteers, fulfill critical roles throughout the city.

Since the early 1990s, more than 30,000 young people in the heart of Knoxville have been served by Emerald Youth Foundation. We remain committed to serving children and families in our city's urban neighborhoods.