Small and Mighty: Youth Opportunities Development
Youth Opportunities Development
The Pittsburgh Foundation awarded a Small and Mighty grant of $15,000 in 2016 to Youth Opportunities Development. Formalized in 2014, Youth Opportunities Development’s mission is to ensure peaceful, prosperous communities through mentoring, education and empowerment of youth.
This grant supported the Stay Positive Clairton project, which aims to reduce school absences, detention and suspensions. “Stay Positive Clairton” is a membership program that works intensively with students to resolve barriers to school attendance and behavioral issues that result, sometimes unfairly, in school discipline. It also funded the development and implementation of five community projects for at least 300 community members, leading to a 30 percent decrease in detention, suspension and tardiness. It also reduced new contacts with the juvenile justice system to less than five percent of members.
The Small and Mighty grants program, an outcome of the Foundation’s 100 Percent Pittsburgh organizing principle, has, as of Dec. 2019, awarded $1.25 million to nonprofit organizations with budgets of less than $600,000.
Youth Opportunities Development has an annual operating budget of $96,000.
To learn more about Youth Opportunities Development and their Stay Positive Clairton program, visit https://www.yodpa.org/
