The Orange County Youth Bureau is one of twelve grant recipients statewide to administer the New York State Department of Health Collaboration for Community Change – ACT for Youth Initiative. The Youth Bureau has been a department in County government since 1978, providing funding, planning, coordination of services, resources and referrals. The Youth Bureau’s mission is proactive in advocating for ALL youth and their families by developing and funding programs and services that promoted healthy and positive youth development.
Advancing Positive Youth Development is a Collaborative Effort!
This local partnership utilizes the Youth Bureau’s Orange County Youth Board/Collaboration for Community Change (OCYB/CCC) as its governing body. The OCYB/CCC and the Youth Development Action Team work together with the ACT coordinators to meet the objectives of the grant.
We are continuously working to cultivate partnerships with all sectors in the county who will commit to building assets in our young people. There are several ways to get involved with the ACT for Youth Initiative with varying levels of commitment.
Goals
1. Increase opportunities and supports for young people by:
- Educating all sectors of the community on ACT and positive youth development
- Surveying middle and high school youth on their assets
- Work with youth to create ACT and youth development marketing materials for distribution
2. Increase youth engagement and youth voice by:
- Giving youth opportunities to identify needs in Orange County
- Providing leadership training for young people
- Youth-planned conference and youth/community team building experiences
- Increasing communication between diverse groups of young people
- Offering opportunities for young people to develop mini-grants
3. Organizational changes reflecting positive youth development principals by:
- Training youth to monitor Youth Bureau funded programs
- Changing civil service job descriptions to include youth development principals
- Introducing positive youth development principals across multiple systems
- Training youth workers on positive youth development
- Youth serving on Boards
4. Community policy changes reflecting positive youth development principals by
- Having youth train schools and community boards on youth development
- Youth on Boards
- Increasing awareness of policy makers of positive youth development that will create youth friendly policy change.
Links
Contact
Colleen Monaghan
cmonaghan@co.orange.ny.us
Beth Sciortino
bsciortino@co.orange.ny.us
Orange County Youth Bureau
18 Seward Avenue
Middletown, NY 10940
Tel. (845) 615-3620
Fax. (845) 346-1170