Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative (BYA) is a four-year project that seeks to improve outcomes for young people ages nine to 14 by increasing their participation in high quality activities during the after-school, evening, and weekend hours. The initiative is being implemented in New York and San Francisco, with several other Beacon cities serving as partners and sharing their experiences.

Young adolescence is a time of vulnerability and special opportunity. Research shows that young people benefit significantly when they participate in out-of-school-time programs. But many, as they enter adolescence, attend these programs less consistently and those who are most in need tend not to participate at all. Investments by government and private funders in non-school-hour programs offer the possibility of improved outcomes for young people who participate consistently in these programs.

YDI is working with the San Francisco Beacon Initiative (SFBI) to provide incentive grants, technical assistance and training to Beacon sites in both cities. The initiative draws upon exemplary practices and research to increase outreach, participation, engagement, and retention of young people. Beacon organizations from several other cities are also involved as partners. Lessons learned will be disseminated nationally.

BYA objectives include:

* Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve the participatin of young adolescents.
* Increasing the undertanding of participating communities of wy youth do or do not participate in Beacons and other similar programs.
* Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve its outreach efforts.
* Strengthening the capacity of YDI and other intermediaries to improve the quality of Beacon services to young adolescents and to increase their knowledge about how intermediaries work effectively.
* Applying the lessons from this work more widely in Beacons and establishing or strengthening efforts by policy makers, intermediaries, and practitioners to establish policies about young adolescent participation in the initiative cities and nationally.
* Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve the participation of young adolescents.