YouthVille Detroit is dedicated to enhancing the lives of youth and furthering positive youth development in Detroit and surrounding communities.    A basic goal is to facilitate effective, diverse partnerships within the community to provide collaborative programming and support for young people and youth serving organizations.

YouthVille's work is based on four assumptions:

• Young people who are involved with a variety of positive activities and opportunities will be more productive and avoid risky behavior.
• Young people thrive when they have positive relationships with caring, responsible adults.
• Young people who are intentionally involved in decision making to shape their own development attain sustained positive growth.
• Communities need to maintain a safe, clean, vibrant, nurturing and supportive environment in order for young people to be productive.

YouthVille Detroit

YouthVille Detroit is the signature project of DYF.  Conveniently located at Woodward and Lothrop in Detroit’s New Center area,  YouthVille Detroit’s 73,000 square foot facility, was designed to be the most comprehensive neighborhood youth development center in the city of Detroit and the Midwest.

YouthVille promotes a holistic and integrated approach to developing youth by enhancing emotional, social, physical, mental and academic well-being through providing direct programs and research in partnership with others.

With programs designed for and by kids, YouthVille Detroit offers a broad range of youth development activities from art to computers, academics to fitness, Web radio broadcasting to music studio recording and much more within six core areas of leadership development, cultural and fine arts, education and academic enrichment, technology, health and fitness and music.  It also provides multiple opportunities for adults to volunteer and interact with youth.

Furthermore, YouthVille Detroit provides leased space for 10 – 12 community-based tenant partner organizations that provide an array of support services to youth and families.

Organization History

In 1987, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's Youth Initiative Partnership (KYIP) began with a single mission: to improve the quality of life for children and youth in Detroit's Northern High School vicinity and two other Michigan communities facing economic, social, and educational challenges. Kellogg committed a 20-year investment to improving outcomes in the area by partnering with communities so they can provide opportunities to youth to grow into healthy, contributing adults. YouthVille Detroit successfully evolved from that program.

YouthVille Detroit, formerly YouthVille Detroit, was incorporated in August 1999 as a 509(a)(1) public charity foundation and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Founding DYF as its own legal entity was a realization of the KYIP's goal to "establish viable, long-term vehicles to help communities create, institutionalize, coordinate, and sustain positive youth development efforts and to keep the development of children and youth a top priority." 

Impact Area

Initially, much of DYF's YouthVille programming was targeted to include ten sub-communities in Detroit's central city that represents approximately 20% of Detroit's population. Within this area are ten major Detroit public high schools as well as a number of private and charter schools. The service area provides a potential pool of 26,000 youth ages 10-19, representing 17.4% of Detroit's youth population in this age range.

The broad youth programming activities offered have attracted youth from well-beyond the initial target area.  During the first year of operation, youth from 270 schools participated in activities at YouthVille.  With such broad reach and its diverse collaborative partnerships it has developed,  DYF believes it can positively influence youth development policies and systems within the broad metropolitan area.