An Introduction to the Alliance
A Partnership of Minnesota Alliance With Youth,
AmeriCorps, Serve Minnesota & Partners across the state
Alliance Mission
Minnesota Alliance With Youth is a
collaborative network advocating with and
for youth to ensure that all young people
have the proven resources they need to be
successful: caring adults, safe places, a
healthy start, effective education, and
opportunities to serve.
The Focus of Our Work
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Engagement: Connecting youth with service &
leadership opportunities in order to create
meaningful change in their communities.
Voice: Providing a variety of avenues for youth to
work with adults in addressing the critical needs
facing our state.
Success: Targeting youth with programs and
supports to impact their academic achievement,
school engagement, and overall success in life.
A Brief History & Overview
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Founded in 1997, the Alliance is the State
affiliate of America’s Promise
(www.americaspromise.org).
We use the framework of the Five Promises
to inform & shape our work.
We convene & connect statewide partner
organizations with each other & to local
communities.
We contribute resources through the
Promise Fellows (which are funded by
AmeriCorps & the Corporation for National &
Community Service (www.americorps.org),
Red Wagon Award, and Global Youth
Service Day efforts.
We support & encourage youth voice &
youth/adult partnerships as a key way to
sustain & support young people and create
lasting change.
Our Philosophy of Partnership:
Our Core Values
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The most effective way to impact
youth is through strengthening
partnerships: both at the community
level and at the statewide level.
Youth development is not just an
effort of those in education or youth
development: it is a community-wide
effort.
We work to empower and support
those working throughout Minnesota
to ensure all young people have
access to the Five Promises.
We convene key partners to share
best practices, research, and
recognize the work of communities.
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We are a leader in connecting &
mobilizing partner organizations to build
capacity around the resources young
people need to be successful.
The Alliance works to contribute
resources to help youth success through
the Promise Fellow program, funded by
AmeriCorps.
Partnerships at the Community Level
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School-Community Partnerships (SCPs) are made up of
collaborating organizations, schools, faith communities,
parents, businesses, government agencies, and youth
working to ensure young people have access to the
resources they need to be successful.
Youth-Adult Partnerships are key to making these efforts
sustainable and productive in meeting the challenges
facing youth & communities.
Strengthening Partnerships
Each year, the Alliance works with between 4045 School Community Partnerships to:
Increase opportunities for youth voice,
Promote civic engagement,
Increase academic success, and
Ensure access and opportunities for all young
people to achieve.
Gallup Poll (2009)
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Only 50% of youth are hopeful
(that is, have ideas and energy for
the future—hope predicts GPA and
retention in college better than
high school GPA/SAT/ACT scores)
20% of youth are actively
disengaged and additional 30%
are not engaged (show lack of
involvement and enthusiasm for
school)
About 2/3 of youth are
considered to be “thriving”—they
think about their present and
future life in positive terms.
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Overall, the Gallup Poll found
that only ¼ of the youth meet
the criteria for being hopeful,
engaged, and thriving.
So what does this mean for us?
What Does It Mean for Us?
More than ever, young people need:
 Caring Adults in their lives to keep them ENGAGED
 Effective Education to give them HOPE
 Opportunities to Serve to help them THRIVE
This is what the Alliance works to achieve alongside schools,
parents, communities, organizations, and youth
themselves.
How does our model work in
Communities?
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Brooklyn Park & Brooklyn
Center
Northfield
Worthington
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The Brooklyns:
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Lunch/in-school tutoring, afterschool
homework help & leadership
activities at the Middle School
Mini-Summit recipient; outcomes
focused on connecting youth with
programs & safe places and in
bringing together two neighboring
communities
Strong stakeholders in Community
Education, Church/Faith-Based Orgs,
School, Local bakery/gas station,
police department support, youth
council
Working on figuring out volunteer &
Civic engagement piece
What’s working, continued…
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Worthington
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Schools in 4 Districts, Integration
Collaborative, Local Businesses,
CBOs
Afterschool Programming with
lots of youth voice/engagement
in the planning and execution of
activities (Dance/hip hop group,
peer mentoring program, etc)
Focus on career/college access
for new immigrants/ELL
students
Looking for ways to engage
volunteers in ongoing roles,
rather than one time events
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Northfield
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Strong collaboration between
school, CBOs, health
organizations, mayors council,
local colleges
Both MS/HS/Youth Orgs provide
wraparound tutoring, afterschool
programming, service projects,
and summer activities
Over $1 mill in support for
mentoring programs has come
into the community as a result of
their SCP
Still navigating ways to engage
law enforcement, business
sector
What is the Impact?
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Over the past 5 years, Fellows
have provided over 18,500
youth with intensive
interventions
2/3 of youth in programs
facilitated by Fellows improve
their academic performance
Promise Fellows have partnered
with over 150 school and
community partners across the
state of Minnesota
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Fellows have recruited over
20,000 youth volunteers to give
back to their communities
through volunteer and service
opportunities
Youth-Adult Partnerships
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Groups of youth and adults come together to:
 Develop authentic relationships and Identify areas that the
partnership wants to strengthen as a group in support of the
community, and youth in particular
 Work on improving communication in order to avoid duplication of
programs and services
 Assess the political climate within a community for engaging youth
as assets and develop more intentional means of collaborating
across programs and organizations
 Meet regularly (bi-monthly or quarterly) and provide ongoing
financial, human, and programmatic resources (such as access to
space, materials, etc) to the work of the Partnership
AmeriCorps Promise Fellows
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210 members serve in schools, community organizations,
and youth development intermediaries
Build the capacity of organizations and leverage community
resources to more effectively meet the needs of youth
Funded by the Corporation for National & Community
Service and Serve Minnesota
Hosting an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow
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Applications available online (www.mnyouth.net);
Cash Match of $6900 plus in-kind for office space,
technology, resources, materials, etc
Must demonstrate a need AND the capacity or
willingness to form partnerships with community
organizations, government, businesses, faith
community, and academic institutions