Friends of the Children - Seattle

Friends-seattle's long-term, consistent mentoring relationships help youth develop and achieve individual goals that lead to thriving futures. Our mentors, who are full-time, salaried staff, support youth to be prepared for post-secondary education and/or employment. Develop positive goals for the future and develop a healthy lifestyle. Our vision is that youth have the support they need to succeed and become advocates for themselves and their communities. We provided services to 184 youth ages 5-18 enrolled in over 114 different schools and living in 60 zip codes. With 12+ years of support, our youth achieve remarkable long-term outcomes. Since 2000, 89% of friends-seattle program graduates earned a high school diploma or ged. 92% avoided the juvenile justice system and 92% avoided early parenting. Key to our model is our ability to provide young people the tools and relational support they need to overcome early childhood adversity. Long-term goals for youth are that they: - graduate from high school prepared for post-secondary education and employment - develop positive goals for the future and avoid the juvenile justice system and - develop a healthy lifestyle and avoid early parenting. of all the youth who have completed the entire friends-seattle 12-year program since being founded in 2000: - 89% have graduated high school or obtained their ged by the end of the program - 92% have avoided the juvenile justice/legal system - 92% have avoided becoming a teen parent in the 2022-23 year, youth made progress each quarter toward their individual goals, for an average of: - 93% of youth toward school success - 92% of youth toward social-emotional development - 90% of youth toward improved health - 93% of youth toward making good choices- 93% of youth toward planning for the future in june 2023, 2 youth completed the friends-seattle program after 12 years. 2 received their high school diploma and one is completing their ged this year. They officially exited our program in sept 2023, and our mentors continue to keep in touch and support them as they launch into their post-secondary lives.