Our mission is to transform East Oakland into a healthy and economically robust community by developing the leadership of youth and young adults and improving the systems that impact them. YU’s approach is grounded in a resiliency model designed to nurture youth’s personal transformation while facilitating their efforts to improve their communities. We believe that if we provide youth with relevant services and programs, meaningful engagement with caring adults, and opportunities to practice leadership they will become change agents and contributors to a healthy thriving community.