The Berkshire Youth Development Project was awarded at three-year grant, through the Compassion Massachusetts Berkshire Initiative that will bring nearly $200,000 into the community each year to develop organizational capacity and sustainability of faith-based and community organizations (FBCO’s) that serve at-risk youth and their families. The grant is awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ACF Communities Empowering Youth Demonstration Program to the University of Massachusetts, Donahue Institute in partnership with the New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services and the Berkshire Youth Development Project.

Berkshire County was identified as one of two regions in Massachusetts with high-risk indicators for youth and a largely rural community that faces challenges in developing a comprehensive county-wide approach that supports positive youth development and family supports.

Compassion Massachusetts will support capacity building activities in five critical areas of development:

1. Leadership: board and professional staff development and training.
2. Organizational: organizational status, mission, vision, assessment, strategic planning, fiscal management, volunteer and staff  development, annual performance reviews and increasing computer/soft-ware proficiency, and record-keeping.
3. Program:  develop/implement plans that increase scope of services and/or number of clients, new approaches, quality/effectiveness of services, client data, feedback and evaluation, services assessments, and organizational outcomes evaluation.
4. Revenue: creating a fundraising plan, increasing number and sources of  funding applications, hiring a grant writer/consultant to train staff, identifying and pursuing new sources of  non/government funds and/or in-kind donations.
5. Community Engagement: creating/updating website, developing/distributing written materials, engaging in partnerships with other FBCO’s, advertising, activities that increasing understanding of community and service area needs.

Compassion Massachusetts capacity building activities will be directed to agencies whose core purpose is to promote pro social skills among youth aged 14-24, or provide services to youth and their families.  The targeted youth among this age group are “at-risk” by their behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, school dropout, teen pregnancy and violent behavior. A secondary target is people receiving services in organizations designed to help low-income families and/or families in transition (homelessness, employment, or from an institution -incarceration or rehabilitation). Because families are the context in which youth live and grow, those providing services that include families will be considered an integral target group.

Three types of activities are available to faith-based and communities in Berkshire County:

• Organizational and Staff development training series offered in the Spring and Fall: these will be open to all Berkshire County human service organizations.
• Apply to become a Youth Development Partner:  15-20 organizations will be selected to become partners. Partners will receive an organizational assessment, one-to-one technical assistance and in-depth youth development trainings.
• Youth Development Partners are eligible to apply for a Capacity Building Grant: eight to 10 awards will be made annually, ranging from $1,000 to $20,000.

* You must apply and be selected as a partner in order to be eligible to apply for a capacity building grant.

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