Connecting Detroit Youth to a Brighter Future

Sometimes being in the trenches it is difficult to see that you are making a difference. We tend to focus on the youth that we could not reach and the families we could not help. We sharpen our efforts and keep trying. We are committed to never giving up and believing that failure is never final. But every now and then we have to look up and look back over the road we are traveling and see the impact of what we are doing. We are making a difference and we are so proud of what we are doing. We know we are making a difference when the youth who have "graduated" from our program spread the word on what a tremendous agency this is and others join our mounting waiting list. We are making a difference when homeless youth hear from a youth we helped and come asking for assistance because they heard that we care. We are making a difference when we receive visits from youth that have left our program and are serving oversees in the armed services and share with us that if it hadn't been for The Youth Connection they would not have had the opportunities they are now experiencing. We are making a difference when we pick up the office phone and it's the youth we helped get out of the gang and is now living in another state and he says "I just called the say Thank you and I love you guys!"  

Our funding sources give us accolades for our work and we are proud of being recognized by many of our funders as the go to agency. But it is the support that we receive from people just like you who believe in what we are doing and support the differences we are making that are really fueling our success. It's the anonymous donors, the recurring donors, and the one time donors who examine what we do and think this is an agency that does make a difference that help the most. Thank you!

We will continue to make you proud and keep you posted on our successes and challenges. A challenge we are facing like many across the country is the opioid epidemic and the impact of recreational marijuana on our youth. In addressing these challenges we know the benefit of collaborating and acting on the voices of those who are directly impacted. Our President and CEO of The Youth Connection acts as Chairman of The Love Detroit Prevention Coalition and works aggressively with many partners including the Police and Health Departments. Our collective impact was nationally recognized by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America when we received the 2019 Chairman's Award "in recognition for exemplary demonstration and application of core competencies and essential processes of effective community problem solving." A problem we addressed was having our youth spearhead the effort to close an unauthorized marijuana dispensary in our community. We worked with our youth to promote a social media geofencing campaign that sent a prevention message to the phones of any youth in our targeted communities that were in the parking lot or inside of any authorized and unauthorized marijuana dispensaries. The contributions we received from GlobalGiving supported us taking two youth and a parent to the national convention in Washington, DC to stand with us as we were all recognized and received the Chairman's Award.

Our efforts continue and we are training youth and community members to administer Naloxone which can save the life of a person who may be experiencing an opioid/heroin overdose. Working in collaboration with the local Mental Health Authority and our City's health department we are on a mission to train 1,000 plus members of our community by the end of the year to Help Save a Life. If one life is saved we will know that we have made a difference. Your contributions to GlobalGiving helps support this effort and will continue to help us make a difference in this and other challenges we take on. To our GlobalGiving family - thank you!

Links:

• The Youth Connection's Website
• TYC Detroit On Facebook
• TYC Detroit On Twitter