In response to the challenges facing urban youth living residing in segregated neighborhoods impacted by poverty, crime and limited opportunity, significant effort has been made to develop positive youth development programming that assists early-to late adolescents (11 to 24- year olds) in successfully navigating this rocky period of growth.

Positive youth development is defined generally as a process that helps adolescents master the roles, responsibilities and expectations of their particular developmental stage and lays the foundation for the successful transition into the next phase of human development (from adolescence to early adulthood).

The dual goals of our mentoring programs are to:

(1) increase socioemotional intelligence and

(2) connect young people to positive role models, supportive adults and important social institutions (schools, places of worship, nonprofit youth organizations, etc.).

These efforts in turn help young people develop the positive self and social orientation essential to mastering developmental tasks, avoiding delinquent behaviors and successfully achieve important stage-appropriate milestones.

For more information, please contact Nakia Samuels, Senior Program Manager, at nsamuels@chiul.org.