Empowering Youth and Building Futures through 2024 and Beyond

To << Test First Name >>,


In place of our regular seasonal updates, we're excited to share the remarkable progress YES has made over the past two years. This journey is thanks to your generous, continued financial support, and has been one of growth, adaptation, and unwavering commitment to the youth we serve. We at YES are so grateful for the work and outcomes your investment empowers.

2022-23: Addressing Urgent Mental Health Needs

As YES emerged from the challenging first two years of COVID-19, we recognized the crucial need to address our youth's increased mental health challenges. Here's a few highlights of what we achieved with your support:

  • Hired a New Creative Arts Therapist: Introduced new clinical methodologies to our mental health department.

  • Built a Creative Arts/Music Studio: Provided a space for individual and group sessions focused on self-awareness, emotional resilience, social skills, and conflict resolution.

  • Increased Youth Engagement: YES youth responded to these changes with energy and enthusiasm, creating art that helps them heal and learning to use recording studio equipment to tell their stories.

2023-24: Expanding Our Impact

As our shelters returned to full capacity, we faced new challenges: In addition to the ongoing need to grow our mental health department, we needed to address how the pandemic and the economy had impacted youth’s mindsets around their education and employment goals. Our youth experienced delays in getting their high school diplomas or GEDs, and the current rental market also created anxiety as youth tried to imagine a future in which they could feel financially self-sufficient. Here's how you helped us adapt:

  • Hired a Clinical Manager: to enhance our Better Well-Being Program's capacity to deliver proactive mental health services.

  • Recruited Clinical Interns to Strengthen Service Delivery: Added interns from Loyola and USC to our mental health staff, strengthening our ability to provide case-by-case, tailored services to our youth.

  • Increased Mental Health Hours: Boosted overall delivery of mental healthcare services by 64.8%.

  • Resulting Improvement in Youth Job Retention: The majority of our residents are now maintaining employment while proactively addressing their mental health challenges.

The Path to Long-Term Stability: 2025 and Beyond

Our programming philosophy has always been holistic, and the need for that approach is greater today than it has been in the past. We serve more than 325 youth annually, on average, and their challenges are interconnected. To ensure the best outcomes for our youth, YES works with their goals and aspirations:

  • Employment Track: Youth who focus on employment over higher education need to find connections between their interests and career opportunities. Through strategic programming, they learn that an interest in fashion can lead to numerous behind-the-scenes occupations.

  • Education Track: Youth who focus on post-secondary education need to know there are resources available to them. College shouldn’t be viewed as something  unaffordable or out of reach. Through strategic programming, they learn financial aid is available, covering not only the cost of tuition, but also housing.

Each youth’s journey starts with mental health and ends with long-term stability. Along the way are vital skills, such as financial literacy, and life skills like cooking, personal hygiene, and cleaning. Enrichment activities show youth life’s simple joys, while providing exposure to potential career paths. Underpinning all of this are the foundations of housing and positive relationships.


No matter the track our youth choose, community partnerships are a key piece of the puzzle in making their goals a reality. Your support, both financial and via word-of-mouth, empowered a key partnership with LIBERTINE, a fashion design studio based in Los Angeles. This partnership provides youth with direct career exposure in the fashion industry, empowering them to make informed decisions about their futures.

Once youth graduate into independent living, our Staying Strong Program provides connection to local resources in housing, education, employment, mental and physical health, ensuring our youth have the reliable support they need to thrive.

Private funding is crucial in providing these vital services, as government funding only covers the basics of shelter and food. Your support allows us to go beyond the basics and provide comprehensive services that lead to greater successes for our youth. Your investment in YES helps fight the homelessness crisis in the most effective way possible: before it becomes the norm for the youth we serve.

Thank you for your continued support,


Mark Supper and the Team at YES