Community Youth Development of Sarasota County (FL) Information

Community Youth Development (CYD) engages youth in programs designed to build leadership skills and empower them to take action to improve their communities. Formed in 1996, this innovative partnership of youth and non profit agencies has received national recognition for excellence in engaging youth within the community. Youth are valued as resources in addressing the concerns affecting their peers and their communities, and serve at all decision making levels of the organization. Teens work in partnership with adults to create programs that will be interesting to youth and maximize resources available for programming. Through CYD, teens can participate in a variety of positive programs that allow for social development, career and college preparation, leadership development and community service. The most popular program CYD offers is the STAR Leadership training which prepares high school students to serve as full voting members of non-profit boards of directors and governmental advisory boards.