Youth Leadership Institute

YLI's mission is to build communities where young people and their adult allies come together to create positive social change.

Through our decades of youth leadership development in urban, suburban, and rural communities, we consistently see young people’s deep motivation to challenge and improve the society in which they live as it relates to educational and health inequities, substance abuse, predatory financial practices, public housing, youth voice, and many other issues.

YLI chooses to engage youth as part of the solution and nurtures this passion, providing ways for youth to lead and channel this motivation into effective community change. Through youth led action research, our youth leaders investigate community challenges, and potential solutions. They learn how to develop a campaign and build a network of community members to educate others and create policy change. By actively learning about the problems in society and working to make change, our young leaders strengthen themselves and their communities. At YLI, we believe cultivating engaged and dynamic young people today will lead to a more equitable and sustainable society tomorrow.