Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)

A community-based nonprofit preparing youth for successful lives, immerses their new space in graphics expressing who they are.

Account Manager: Erik Reczek
Customer Service Heroes: Rachel Batman & Matt Hausler
Project Manager: Julia Kaufman
Writer and Photography: Catie Duffy

Glad to see Y.O.U.

Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.) is a community-based nonprofit organization whose goal is to close the opportunity gap by preparing youth for post-secondary and lifelong success. They provide academic, social, and emotional support to 1,600 youth and their families each year, ensuring every young person has the opportunity to succeed.

Are Y.O.U. ready to learn more?

All of Y.O.U.’s services are relationship-based and free for youth and their families. During Y.O.U.’s 2016-17 program year,

85% of youth improved or maintained their academic achievement.

An Excellent Opportunity

Y.O.U.’s recently constructed youth center and headquarters contain state-of-the-art program spaces for the youth they serve, as well as collaborative office-space for 60+ staff members. The building serves as a central hub for out-of-school time programs, clinical and outreach services, and family engagement services.

Measures of Success

Since Y.O.U. has been in the new youth center for less than a year, tours of the space play a big role in welcoming neighbors, partners, and donors.

The space is enhanced by graphics that display Y.O.U.’s history and mission.

Dimensional logos are hung on the building’s exterior and greet visitors entering the space. A frosted acrylic lobby sign lists the names of Campaign for Youth Opportunity supporters, while ADA signage for all-gender bathrooms, stairwells, offices, and classrooms are incorporated throughout the space.

Y.O.U. On The Rise

Continue into the space and you can’t miss colorful elevator graphics where quotes from real Y.O.U. participants have found a home.

Taking the stairs?

Acrylic prints and vinyl cut lettering outlining the organization’s history lead guests to the administrative floor. According to Alcott,

“Staff, donors, board members, partners and youth really like the stairwell story of ‘YOU on the Rise,’ which highlights our history in the community and shares photos from our inception to now.”

Opportunity Knocks

When Cushing visited Y.O.U. to take photos of the finished project, the team received a warm welcome from Alcott and a group of students.

Angel Cruz, Carmelita Armenta and Jamal Connerly-Bey showed us around and had some fun posing with the work we did for Y.O.U.

Standing United

There were some updates that had to be made after the installation. Interchangeable name plates hang outside of each office (some on a giant dry-erase wall!) for updates to be made quickly and easily.

After the Y.O.U. team laid out the new space, they realized more staff would be on-site than anticipated.

Some coworkers would need to share offices, so the Cushing team adjusted the name plates to account for the shared spaces.