Compass Youth Collaborative Inc

COMPASS Youth Collaborative believes that every young person has incredible potential. COMPASS provides supports and opportunities to at-risk youth so that they may become ready willing and able to succeed in education, employment, and life.

COMPASS Youth Collaborative helps Hartford's most disconnected youth navigate the barriers that keep them from succeeding in education, employment, and life.
Young adulthood, between the ages of 16 to 24, is a period of transition. Most young people enter this stage dependent on individuals and systems to meet their basic needs, provide guidance and emotional support and help them transition into productive adults.
Youths living surrounded by violence are in a constant "survival brain" state. The brain is highjacked and ready to respond to threats against their life; therefore, they cannot learn, think, grow, or make sound decisions. The prefrontal cortex and executive function cannot work or be developed appropriately.
The transition to successful adulthood can be challenging for those without essential support and living in a constant flight state. Add the effects of trauma, inability to trust others, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and anger, the transition to successful adulthood becomes a road full of barriers.

COMPASS Peacebuilders create transformative relationships to help youth overcome the barriers keeping them from successfully transitioning to adulthood. Peacebuilders become the stable adult youth need to guide them through this transitional stage. Using Cognitive Behavior Therapy delivered during one-on-one case management and in small groups, Peacebuilders teach life skills that change the trajectory of youth's lives.

Components of Program:

Responding to Crises and Canvassing Neighborhoods
Peacebuilders canvas the streets, connecting with young people and building trusting relationships. During times of crisis, we work in the community to deescalate the tension and build peace.
We are the only community-based violence interruption program in Hartford.

Reconnect Youth to Education
Our Education Specialists work with youth, reconnecting them to education, whether in traditional classrooms, earning their GED, or obtaining licensures and attending trade schools.

Connecticut Youth to Employment
Youth work with Job Specialists who provide basic employment training (soft skills, time management) and financial literacy education. We give youth a safe place to fail, learn from their failure, and try again.

Supporting Youth’s Mental Health
Using Cognitive Behavior Theory, our staff works with youth to help them understand the relationship between how they feel and what they do. Our Licensed Clinical Social Workers and Peacebuilders provide life-saving skills, helping youth slow down, stop, and focus on what's in front of them so they can make better decisions.

COMPASS partners with schools, the probation department, police, and other youth service organizations to ensure our youth succeed.

At COMPASS, we believe everything begins with the relationship. Building a trusting relationship with the young people we serve is key to helping our youth reach their goals. To create these relationships, we must have a staff of committed youth development professionals; we consider our staff our "secrete sauce."
Our front-line staff consists of youth development professionals, we call them Peacebuilders, many of whom were at-risk youth themselves; they understand the challenges our youth face and the tools needed to overcome these challenges. Our staff is relentless when working with our young people; they understand that progress is not always a straight line and never give up on our youth. Our staff know the mission of the agency and act with our core values of collaboration, peace, relentlessness, resilience, and integrity in mind.
COMPASS staff delivers high-quality youth development programs using tested strategies to change the trajectory of at-risk youth's lives. As an agency, we are committed to continuously providing professional development to our staff. All staff participates in Mind in The Making training and training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Front line staff are supported by MSWs, teachers, and professionals who have years of experience working with at-risk youth. A Director of Partnership works to connect youth with community services.

COMPASS Youth Collaborative began in 1995 as the Southend Knightriders Youth Center in response to the rash of gang activity in the Barry Square and South End Neighborhoods of Hartford. As our vision and funding changed, it became evident that the best way to help our youth was through the school system. In 2004 through a competitive selection process, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving awarded COMPASS Youth Collaborative a grant to implement and coordinate quality before, during, and after-school programs in three Hartford Community Schools.
In 2006 COMPASS was awarded a grant to fund the Peacebuilders initiative. This collaboration with the City of Hartford uses an unconventional and unique blend of anti-violence strategy and youth development techniques to reach disconnected youth ages 13-18.

In 2019, the agency undertook a Theory of Change. The purpose of the process was to define long term goals for our program and our youth and then map backward to identify necessary preconditions to reach those goals.
We began by looking at all aspects of our work. We looked at what we did well and at our challenges. The process led to a new mission statement, a new focus, and well-defined outcomes for our youth.
The agency decided to focus on high-risk youth between the ages of 16-20 with one or more of these risk factors:
• Possession of a weapon
• Gang member or gang association
• Criminal juvenile justice involvement
• Perpetrator or victim of violence for a cause
Our next steps are to refine our programming for the target population and continue to survey our youth to make sure we are providing them with the tools they need to reach the desired outcomes.