Youth Futures Authority History
A brief look at the history of the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority (YFA) begins in 1987 when the Annie E. Casey Foundation awarded Savannah, GA a 10 million dollar grant to establish a New Futures Initiative. The Initiative was originally designed to reduce school dropout and school failure, teen pregnancy and youth unemployment and inactivity. The Initiatives goals were based on the belief that childrens problems are not isolated, but rooted in community institutions; therefore, problems must be examined and addressed within the communitys larger institutional context. More than 16 years of experience in using this perspective has shown that the philosophy of working within a collaborative framework to involve and change institutions in order to address the problems of children and families is both valid and workable.
Early in its development, the program goals of the YFA underwent a crucial evolution. Phase One concentrated almost solely on school remediation, prevention and early intervention strategies. Phase Two recognized the importance of interventions being neighborhood-based in order to meet the goal of community-building. Phase Three extended the range of YFAs focus by including family and neighborhood development. In 1994, a physical manifestation of this was the creating of the St. Pius X Family Resource Center. Also during this phase, outcome-based evaluation was incorporated into all programs administered by the YFA. Phase Four focused on system change and had a strong concentration on community-building at the neighborhood level as one of its major components. In Phase Five, the collaborative addressed broad issues of economic development, improvement of infrastructure and public safety, educational attainment, social welfare reform and improved access to health care.
YFA began the development of its new Strategic Plan in 2000 (which became adopted in 2002) when the first Community Summit was held to engage the Authoritys original members/stakeholders and community leaders in order to re-commit to Chatham Countys compact for children and families. The four focus areas that originated at that Summit and carried forward to later Summits are: Safe Families & Neighborhoods, Healthy Families, Ensuring Educational Success and Economic Self-Sufficiency.
The latest Strategic Plan for the YFA, which was finalized and adopted in January 2007, outlines the goals, strategies and initiatives that will move the work of the Authority for the next three years.