Youth Action

Our mission is to inspire students to lead and provide them with the resources and support to serve their communities. Our story began twenty years ago when a group of Philadelphia students traveled to Washington, DC to participate in a youth conference. Their passion for making a difference led them to develop a project focused on teenage pregnancy, earning them a $1,000 grant from Youth Ventures. From this experience, Youth Action was born. And today, we continue to inspire young people to see beyond themselves and embrace their potential to make a difference.

Youth Action is unlike many other organizations because we put young people in the driver's seat. We offer three sequential programs, all led by trained college and high school-level student leaders, for middle and high-school youth throughout Philadelphia:

• Junior Youth Action (JYA) provides 7th and 8th-grade student leaders with clear pathways to civic engagement through leadership development workshops and early exposure to service.
• Inspiring Leaders Program (ILP), our flagship program for 9th-10th grade student leaders, is broken into two phases. Phase one encompasses intense training to strengthen student's leadership skills and develop their social consciousness. During phase two, students execute service projects that address current community issues, engaging the distinct communities they serve.
• The Service Leaders Program (SLP) engages ILP alums in grades 10-12 who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills. SLP reinforces the leadership skills and civic engagement experience students have gained and gives students the autonomy to develop group and organizational-wide social responsibility projects.