A Message from Leadership

As we release last year’s Annual Report, capturing all the amazing highlights of the last year (a few teasers below!) I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your partnership and your support. It is thanks to the commitment of my team at SPYS, our focused Board of Directors, our powerful youth leaders (and their loving parents/families), and youth champions like you, that we're able to do our best work with the greatest impact with our communities. And what an impact!

Last year we:

• Expanded our Behavior Intervention Program (BIP) into two additional schools in Saint Paul and began launching programming in Minneapolis.

• Continued building a community outreach and referral mechanism to connect youth and families to Pre-Charge Diversion services before youth reach a crisis and interact with the punitive system.

• Launched a new YouthPowerMN℠ Leadership Initiative with our first business partner to provide hands on career exploration and mentorship for students at two Saint Paul Public Schools.

And that’s just a preview!

To get the full scoop on our year, check out our report, including some fantastic new videos demonstrating our work and amplifying youth voice & power.

Something one of our business mentors said during our closeout YouthPowerMN℠ Leadership session really resonated with me as I thought about our work: “I would have loved something like this when I was in high school.”

At SPYS, we work to be the adults we wished we had when we were young people, and to create the communities our young people deserve today. I’m honored to continue leading this work and sharing what's possible with SPYS' Youth Champions like you!