Strategic Areas of Focus

The foundations that make up the Youth Transition Funders Group are working - each in their own way - to ameliorate the conditions that help derail young people from successful life trajectories, support those who are out of school and out of work, and provide such young people opportunities to regain a foothold in mainstream society.

Our members have come to recognize that the numbers of disconnected youth are so large, the challenges they face are so great, and the resources that can be marshaled to support and offer them opportunities are so limited that working alone will not be sufficient to the task. Therefore, as a funders’ network, our members are exploring areas of focus to work together and to develop aligned or even shared grantmaking priorities, funding strategies, and advocacy positions.

Over time, we hope that such efforts will create a multiplier effect beyond each foundation's grantmaking, that the whole will add up to more than the sum of the parts, that it will be possible to demonstrate concrete achievements that improve outcomes for these young people, and that other funders and social policy makers will become invested in joining or supporting these activities.

While all young people may be considered vulnerable as they grow from adolescence into adulthood, some young people are facing particular challenges. YTFG is focusing explicitly on young people ages 14 to 24 likely to be disconnected from positive personal, family, community, and/or societal involvement. Foundations involved in the YTFG agree to invest in strategies with a dual focus – intervention to address the circumstances of young people who already are disconnected and prevention to help ensure that the children being raised by these young adults achieve positive outcomes.

We focus our work in three strategic areas: foster care, juvenile justice, and multiple pathways to graduation.