Y.O.U. Expands Post-Secondary Support for Youth

Y.O.U. is excited to announce plans to expand and further develop our post-secondary support for college-bound and college-enrolled youth through collaboration with Evanston Scholars. Evanston Community Foundation awarded $20,000 for our organizations to partner in the coming year through an E-Town Innovation Grant. Through technical assistance provided by Evanston Scholars and mutual referrals, we will increase the number of historically marginalized and underrepresented youth attending and succeeding in higher education—and serve more youth than either organization could alone.

Y.O.U. will continue to support high school youth in broad ways as they explore their options for the future and work to define and achieve their postsecondary goals. This will include career and pathways exploration along with post-secondary education support. Working with Evanston Scholars will allow us to strengthen our college access and persistence programming. Y.O.U. will continue to refer youth to Evanston Scholars and also will employ current Evanston Scholars as staff in our summer program. Additionally, Y.O.U. will begin to provide formal support for Y.O.U. alumni enrolled in college.

To meet the high demand for Evanston Scholars programming, Y.O.U. will draw on their expertise and technical assistance to expand our high school transitions programming to incorporate best practices for postsecondary access and begin to engage in formal support for youth during their college years. This partnership will ultimately serve a greater number of Evanston youth with high-quality programming to support college access and success.

Since 1971, Y.O.U. has provided expanded opportunities and resources and developed supportive relationships with young people, so that they have the ability to design their own paths to success and bring about the changes they want to see in the world. Evanston Scholars provides fundamental college advising proven to help students accomplish their academic goals through a rigorous 6-year program. Both Y.O.U. and Evanston Scholars have program models structured around individualized support, intensive curriculum, and long-term relationship-building. By collaborating, we can build a network of support in Evanston to further work against our community’s persistent educational opportunity gap and towards greater equity.