){kind=icon}
Over the last 39 years, Youth On Their Own has helped thousands of students graduate high school all while providing access to basic necessities and guidance.
Now, the local nonprofit is hoping to check in with YOTO alums who graduated between 1986 and 2020. It’s part of a study that will help YOTO better understand the impact of their program.
“Youth homelessness can be really hidden. They’re not likely to be outside and visible like we see some other folks who are unhoused,” says Daniela Figueroa, who is Youth On Their Own’s Director of Program Design. “I think people don’t realize the scope of youth homelessness, but 1 in 30 youth — that’s one classroom, there’s at least one youth in there — is experiencing homelessness. It’s a huge, huge issue.”
People across the country — from Casa Grande to New York City — have asked Youth On Their Own for help. For now, the nonprofit remains in Tucson. But it might not always be that way.
“We have really big dreams about Youth On Their Own potentially being in service to other youth in other communities,” Daniela says. “We can’t do that if we don’t see what the impact of YOTO is — not just why youth are in our program but afterwards. I think understanding that helps us be able to consider something like expansion very thoughtfully and very carefully.”
While YOTO is able to measure success in numbers — graduation rates and the number of students who access resources, for example — other metrics are harder to gather.
“I think one of the biggest things that’s difficult to measure is that guidance element,” Daniela says. “What is the impact of the relationships we build with young people — the values and beliefs in them that we hold? I think it’s going to be really informative to hear from folks who were in the program about what YOTO’s impact was on them afterwards.”
The team is hoping to chat with at least 300 former YOTO students by the end of the year. If that’s you, you can take the survey here.
The mission behind Youth On Their Own
Ann Young was a local guidance counselor when she noticed bright students dropping out of school after they found themselves unhoused and forced to live on their own. In 1986, she started Youth On Their Own with the help of school staff, volunteers and the community.
“The mission is to support the high school graduation of youth experiencing homelessness in Pima County, but I think from the heart part, the day-to-day part, it’s a deep belief in young people that despite their circumstances, their dreams matter, their hopes matter,” Daniela says.
Services generally come in three buckets:
- Financial assistance: YOTO serves students in grades 6-12, though most are between ages 16-18. To incentivize school attendance, students can receive a monthly $350 stipend.
“The idea is that they’re receiving some kind of income so they don’t have to choose between going to school or dropping out to look for a job to meet their basic needs,” Daniela says. Last year, 93% of seniors involved with Youth On Their Own graduated high school. This year, the number was 89%, and over the last five years, the average has sat around there.
- Basic needs: YOTO has a Mini Mall filled with shelf-stable foods, hygiene products, school supplies and household items. Students can “shop” the mall for free in person or online. If the latter, a volunteer will deliver the items to the students.
“If students don’t know about (the Mini Mall), how can we help them know about it? If they are using it, how can we have them use it even more to reduce the financial burden?” Daniela says. “It’s not just about use, but how do students feel about the experience? We ask a lot of questions centered around dignity, centered around choice, and obviously making sure the items are relevant to this population. We’re not just getting things that we think are important to them, but they tell us what’s important.”
- Guidance: While YOTO doesn’t provide housing, child-care or mental health services, staff can direct students to programs that do.
“Like any human service program, it’s really about supporting youth with whatever needs they have and connecting them to community resources,” Daniela says. “We think the biggest thing is a lot of uplifting and encouragement. In terms of guidance, it’s checking in to see if they really see us as a safe place. Do they see staff as trustworthy and nonjudgemental?”
In the last 10 years, Youth On Their Own has graduated between 250 and 350 seniors each year. Overall, the nonprofit serves between 1,000 and 1,200 high school students every year. There’s also an alumni program in which YOTO helps youth even after high school graduation.
“In general, people think nonprofits can make up for the lack of government assistance and I think that’s an unrealistic expectation,” Daniela says. “However, I think nonprofits are closest to the communities they serve so we can be more nimble.”
Daniela sees it all the time: teens navigate the world in a different way than adults. But there’s often an expectation that teens will automatically know how to find government assistance, they’ll know where to gather information, they’ll know how to efficiently organize their schedules.
“The reality is, they don’t,” Daniela says. “It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they haven’t learned those skills yet or haven’t been given enough time to develop those skills. Even though our young people truly bring so many skills to the table, it’s that these expectations kind of set them up to fail so it can be really hard for young people to navigate systems. For YOTO, we play this really important role in being exclusively for youth. We’ve really learned how to do that the best way we can and I think it’s important we’re in this little pocket — and there are other youth-serving organizations along with us — but we’re this little safe space for young people to get some support and have folks who are patient and listen.
”We do our best to not only serve youth but to also advocate as much as we can,” she says.
Learning from youth and the community
Daniela was a high school chemistry teacher for seven years before landing at Youth On Their Own in 2015. She knew about YOTO because students in her class were involved in the program — she’d even drive them to the Mini Mall.
“I just really saw the impact of the program on my students and really loved YOTO,” she says. “I got burnt out with teaching and thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I really love working with young people and I happened upon the job description (at Youth On Their Own) to be a program coordinator.”
From there, Daniela fell in love with community work and went back to school to get her masters degree in nonprofit leadership management. She’s loved every minute of working with Youth On Their Own.
“I learn from young people truly every single day. Any time I’m in my head about something, I spend some time with them, asking them what they think about the world or what we’re doing. They get it. They’re so insightful,” she says. “I think there’s this stereotype about teenagers being not so approachable or being emotional or not really caring about what adults think. Sure, there’s a little bit of that, but I find that teenagers have such a grasp on the world that adults don’t. If we can just open up our listening mindset, we could learn so much.”
Daniela has known for a very long time that she loves working with teens, but she had no idea Tucson was home to such a giving community.
“I’ve really seen the community wrap their arms around YOTO and YOTO youth. I’ve been super humbled by that, I’m super grateful for that. What a special place we get to be,” she says. “We couldn’t do what we do without the community’s support. The community doesn’t get to see the impact of their support day to day, but we do. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be able to support young people. That little belief that it’s not just YOTO, but that the community believes in them is transformative.”
❤️ For more information about Youth On Their Own, click here. To fill out and/or share the alum survey, click here. To apply to YOTO, click here. To help YOTO, you can donate financially here, learn how to volunteer here and read about Mini Mall donations here. ❤️
This is an ad :)