About YDS

The Youth Driven Space (YDS) initiative is a 2-year pilot project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in which eight youth-serving programs in Michigan receive intensive training and coaching/consulting in order to develop and support opportunities for older youth to authentically lead programs and share in their organizational governance.  A summary fact sheet on the project is available here as a pdf. A final evaluation report is available here as a pdf.  More >>>

NIH Proposed YDS Study

An experimental design study on YDS is being proposed to the National Institute of Health by the Office of University Outreach & Engagement at Michigan State University (MSU).  The study is designed to help participating programs adopt “youth driven space” practices and strategies.  For an overview of the project click here.

If you are interested in being a partner agency, please read the attached recruitment letter and if you are interested in serving as a partner group, please  provide a letter of support no later than May 14, 2012.

Partner Introduction

Neutral Zone – The grantee for this project is the Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s Teen Center.  The Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor Teen Center, was founded by teens in 1998 to provide a unique, youth-centered venue for needed social, cultural, educational, leadership, and creative opportunities for Ann Arbor area high school teens. More >>>

The David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality – The Weikart Center’s mission is to advance the youth development field by positioning point-of-service quality as a powerful public idea. The Center aims to build quality accountability and improvement systems that improve professionals’ skills and change outcome trajectories for youth. More >>>

The Community Evaluation and Research Center (CERC) - CERC  is a unit of Michigan State University’s (MSU) Office of University Outreach and Engagement. CERC acts as a hub for program evaluation activity across MSU, providing training in evaluation and conducting formative and summative evaluations. More >>>

S|Y|N Associates LLC  - is a consulting firm dedicated to expanding the frontiers of leadership which helps leaders build more effective organizations.  S|Y|N Associates is led by Stephen Nose, a former Neutral Zone Board Member. More >>>