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NEW YORK, Dec. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Youth INC announced the distribution of $1 million in grants to its nonprofit partners as part of its COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. Youth INC is a venture philanthropy organization started 26 years ago by founder, Steve Orr. Steve explained, “My vision was to help build the fundraising muscle and operational strength of local grassroots youth development organizations because they are best positioned to help the young people living in under-resourced communities thrive.”
Since the onset of the public health crisis, Youth INC’s partners have been working around the clock to pivot to a virtual environment, stay connected to their young people, support them and their families with basic needs like food, and mitigate the learning gaps the crisis has amplified. Having been involved for the past 25 years, Youth INC National Advisory Board Member Ted Virtue, founder of MidOcean Partners, stated, “This is the most important year in our history, and there has never been a greater need for Youth INC’s services.” He added, “We stepped up to help our partners by raising $1M and issuing general operating support grants as fast as we could to help our partners keep their virtual doors open.”
Since inception, Youth INC has raised over $100M to accelerate over 180 nonprofits in NYC. Guggenheim Partners Executive Chairman and Youth INC National Advisory Board Member Alan Schwartz described the situation in NYC in 2020 as “a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ economy with the pandemic devasting certain communities while others are safely working from home.” He stated, “I am very proud of how we pivoted and raised $1M to help those who need our support more than ever. Organizations like Youth INC, which have a keen line of sight into the biggest challenges nonprofits face and how to address them, are really important to support. With an $11 return for every $1 invested, that means our $100M+ raised since inception has had over $1B of impact!”
The Aspen Institute estimates that investing in the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) of young people generates an 11-times return. As Roger Ferguson, 2020 Recipient of the John C. Whitehead Leadership Award noted in his acceptance speech at Youth INC’s 26th Annual Celebration ‘Un-Gala’ in November, the keys to his success in life have been ‘honesty, optimism and resilience.’ These qualities are three of the key SEL capacities that Youth INC’s nonprofit partners help cultivate in the more than 300,000 young people they serve each year.
Increasing access to opportunities to develop the critical SEL skills required for success in life is core to Youth INC’s mission. “Youth INC is committed to standing alongside our nonprofit partners and pushing through the longstanding barriers highlighted by the pandemic that prevent all New York City youth from thriving.” said Rehana Farrell, Youth INC Executive Director.
