San Diego Youth Services

San Diego Youth Services joined Live Well San Diego as a recognized partner on February 14, 2017. Formed in 1970 as a nationally recognized non-profit organization, San Diego Youth Services is an influential leader of change in our community helping at-risk youth and their families become self-sufficient and reach their highest potential. Committed to creating healthy, safe and thriving communities, San Diego Youth Services is dedicated to creating a community of youth and families who are successful by embracing a trauma informed care philosophy by promoting positive school and home environments among youth.

Since being founded 47 years ago, San Diego Youth Services has served hundreds of thousands of homeless, runaway, abused and at-risk youth and their families, and now provides intensive services to more than 15,000 children and their families each year.  Through employing a diverse staff, and coordinating the efforts of over 200 (monthly) volunteers that serve the community each day, San Diego Youth Services continues to explore opportunities for expanding programs and outreach efforts among at-risk youth. The full spectrum of programs includes counseling, mental health treatment, case management, skill building, educational support and access to resources are designed to help young people achieve self-sufficiency. By utilizing a social change model, San Diego Youth Service embodies the idea of promoting self-knowledge, self-efficacy and leadership competence, so that communities and clients function more effectively.

San Diego Youth Services develops innovative and creative strategies to help at-risk youth in the following four areas: ending homelessness, preventing delinquency and school failure, breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect, and promoting mental health and addiction recovery, in over 80 locations throughout San Diego County. Community partners like police and probation officers, community organizations, schools and peers work with San Diego Youth Services to help at-risk youth in danger. Several nights a week, San Diego Youth Services Outreach Team search for homeless youth living on the streets to offer resources when they have nowhere to turn for help. San Diego Youth Services offers the only 24-hour teen homeless shelter in San Diego and in 2016, provided 192 youth with a safe place to stay. The goal of the shelter is to stabilize the lives of vulnerable youth.

San Diego Youth Services is committed to continuing its efforts that contribute to a healthy, safe, and thriving community, and looks forward to continuing to find ways to align their work with the Live Well San Diego vision.