Youth Guidance creates and implements school-based programs that enable children to overcome obstacles, focus on their education, and ultimately, succeed in school and life. New Independent Sector member Youth Guidance is a leading provider of outcomes-driven programs and capacity-building initiatives, directly serving over 14,000 youth, while reaching hundreds more parents, schools, and local communities. We talked with Nacole Milbrook, their Chief Program Officer, to learn more about the Chicago-based nonprofit.
Nacole Milbrook
IS: Tell us about your organization’s areas of interest, the communities you serve, and how your work helps to advance an equitable and healthy sector and nation where all people can thrive.
NM: Youth Guidance programs fill a growing gap of accessible, stigma-free mental health and social-emotional programs that bring a combination of youth development, clinical practice, and research validation to an important developmental stage in life: adolescence. Our programs differentiate themselves as holistic, culturally responsive, student-centric lifelines that meet the needs of the communities we serve. At Youth Guidance, we see a bright and successful future for every elementary and high school student. Because we believe that success in school is not only possible, but should be achieved and celebrated, we are present in the schools to facilitate an environment that truly engages students in the learning process, and through careful guidance, enables them to realize their full potential and graduate with a meaningful plan for successfully managing life.
Photo courtesy of Youth Guidance
We are serving over 14,000 students and are fully operating at over 200 schools throughout Chicagoland, Waukegan, Boston, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Dallas, and Washington, DC. Throughout our community, we are able to deliver dynamic, high-impact programs that destigmatize mental health interventions and create emotionally safe spaces for students to find their voice, affirm their narrative, develop positive peer relationships, and become leaders in their schools and communities.
IS: What are your organization’s core programs that support the community you serve and help strengthen the nonprofit sector?
NM: Youth Guidance’s Becoming A Man program (BAM) is a school-based group counseling program that guides boys and young men in 7th to 12th grades to learn, internalize, and practice social cognitive skills, make responsible decisions for their future, and become positive members of their school and community. BAM integrates clinical theory and practice, men’s rites of passage work, and a dynamic approach to youth engagement. BAM has six core values: Integrity, Accountability, Self-Determination, Respect for Womanhood, Visionary Goal-Setting, and Positive Anger Expression.
Youth Guidance community members meet with U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy. Photo courtesy of Youth Guidance
Working On Womanhood (WOW) is a multifaceted, school year-long group counseling and clinical mentoring program. WOW works to improve social-emotional competencies for girls and young women in 7th to12th grades, who are exposed to traumatic stressors in high-risk and under-resourced communities. WOW has five core values: Self-Awareness, Emotional Intelligence, Healthy Relationships, Leadership, and Visionary Goal Setting.
IS: What influenced your decision to become an Independent Sector member? How does your work align with Independent Sector’s mission and our member organizations?
NM: At Youth Guidance, we believe that being our best is an ongoing process. We know that in order to successfully serve our youth, we must grow internally and form strong relationships and collaborations with community members and changemakers. By being an Independent Sector member, we have access to results-centered and racial equity-focused information and strategies that will grow our knowledge and understanding of the communities we serve. We’ll also have networking opportunities with like-minded, mission-driven organizations so that together we can ensure that all youth thrive.
Youth Guidance community members meet with Michelle Obama. Photo courtesy of Youth Guidance
IS: Independent Sector collaborates with individuals and the charitable community to create a racially just and healthy sector and nation. How does your work help to support or advance these objectives?
NM: Our transformative programs, including Becoming A Man, Working On Womanhood, Community and After Schools programs, Project Prepare, and Parent and Family engagement, are in multiple communities working to radically improve the equitable educational experiences for students of color. At Youth Guidance, we work hard to break the cycle of inequity by empowering youth, who are living with the inter-generational impacts of historical racial injustice. Our staff bring tremendous expertise, lived experience, and commitment to improving outcomes for the youth we serve.
The Aspen Institute noted in the publication, “Pursuing Social and Emotional Development Through a Racial Equity Lens: A Call to Action,” that social-emotional learning is a critical tool in dismantling systemic racism across our nation’s classrooms. BAM and WOW are in strong alignment with this framework, playing a role in creating racial equity in schools and for our students of color by empowering youth with safe spaces, resources, and mentors. Moreover, BAM and WOW bring a strength-based approach that acknowledges our country’s historical racism by embracing a culturally responsive, healing lens.
Photo courtesy of Youth Guidance
IS: How can collaborating with Independent Sector help you better achieve your mission?
NM: Community connections area large part of the amazing work we are doing, and connecting with other impactful leaders and organizations in the communities we serve creates a greater scope and makes serving all the youth we reach possible.
IS: Tell us about a memorable moment that affirmed how your organization’s work impacts the community you serve.
NM: There are so many memorable moments that capture our “why.” One is the work we’ve done to support youth and families through the ongoing pandemic. It was a time of uncertainty for all when we realized how critical supporting the families means for accelerating our youth to brighter futures. During this time, we provided rent assistance to stop pending evictions, provided groceries to ensure food security, and released discretionary and emergency funds to help families make ends meet. We moved our facilitated sessions to virtual and provided 1:1 individual session with students who needed it. Those students shared how this resource helped them through loneliness, isolation, depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation.
We are also considering all of our moments memorable with validators like former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, philanthropists Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, and others serving as champions for our youth.
Lindsay Marcal is membership manager at Independent Sector. The top photo is courtesy of Youth Guidance. Learn about other Independent Sector members and becoming a member.
