Youth Development Inc. (YDI)

Youth Development Inc. (YDI)

Introduction

Youth Development Inc. (YDI), founded in the year 1971, is a nationally recognized non-profitable charitable youth service organization that have been providing educational, developmental and humanitarian assistance to children, youth and families in central and northern New Mexico. The paper includes a detailed analysis of the programs that the organization offers, its mission and history and the role management plays in initiating and running various programs and operations in the organization. It also includes recommendations for improvement in the organization in alignment with its mission and in accordance with the history of the operations of the organization.

A brief overview

Youth Development Inc. (YDI) has since more than 40 years been extending services and programs to address the needs of the children and also at the same time helping families to face the challenges that have an impact on their lives. For this purpose, the organization has more than 40 programs that help in meeting the needs of the children, youth and families at various levels mainly educational, developmental and humanitarian.

Mission and Vision of the Organization

The vision of the organization is to make communities thrive and not merely survive which is reflected in the range of programs and functions of the organization. Emphasizing on education, employment and economic empowerment with the belief that these are essential elements in breaking the cycle of poverty, crime and unemployment have been key to the devising of the plans of the organization. In this process, the founding vision of the organization which was to keep families and neighborhoods involved in the work done by the organization has also been kept in consideration. The core mission of the organization is “to help children, youth and families achieve their full potential”. All the programs that it has been offering for years have thus kept in consideration the vision that the founders of the organization had which has led them to develop from a 'grassroots community based organization' to a 'multi-county comprehensive youth service organization'.

YDI tries to find out issues and problems that confront the populations and then look forward to find out their solutions. In this solution finding process, it sees families and neighborhoods as true partners in developing, delivering and guiding the work that is needed and that is to be initiated. Since the organization has to accomplish tasks that are community-driven so the contribution of the members of the community is seen as a significant and essential one to bring a long-lasting change and to produce a considerable positive impact.

History of the organization

YDI started some 40 years ago in 1971 as a small neighborhood drop-in center and has since then continued to extend various services and has emerged as a multi-county comprehensive youth service organization. In the early years, it was not envisioned that this small program would turn into social service provider of such a great magnitude that it is today. In these four decades, it has influenced the lives of thousands of youth and families and ...