Cultivating Healthy Youth

Building Stability. Developing Leaders. Creating Pathways to Adulthood.

Urban Triage is a Black-led, community-centered nonprofit based in Dane County, Wisconsin. We provide transformative education, housing support, advocacy, systems navigation, and direct services that support individuals and families in building stability, strengthening self-determination, and creating pathways toward the lives they envision.

Our commitment to young people is rooted in a simple belief: youth deserve more than crisis intervention. They deserve safe places to land, trusted adults who show up, opportunities to develop and lead, access to housing and employment, and the support and resources necessary to thrive.

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One Initiative. Multiple Pathways of Support.

Cultivating Healthy Youth is the umbrella for Urban Triage's youth and emerging-adult programming.

Cultivating Healthy Youth brings together youth development, education, employment, housing stability, advocacy, systems navigation, basic-needs assistance, and relationship-based support.

Instead of expecting young people to navigate disconnected programs and systems on their own, we create multiple pathways into support. A young person may first connect with Urban Triage because they need housing, a job, a safe place to be, advocacy, mentorship, or simply someone they trust. From there, they can connect to additional services as their needs, strengths, and goals evolve.

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Youth Drop-In Hours | Ages 14–22

Urban Triage's Youth Drop-In Hours provide a low-barrier, welcoming space where young people can connect with trusted adults, access resources, and receive support without judgment.

Youth experiencing homelessness, fleeing domestic violence, seeking employment, navigating systems or major life transitions, or simply needing a safe and supportive environment can access:

• Housing navigation
• Systems navigation
• Employment and job-readiness support
• Resource connections
• Education and advocacy
• Basic-needs support
• Individualized guidance and case management
• Connections to additional Urban Triage programs and community resources

Drop-In Hours also provide an important entry point into the larger Cultivating Healthy Youth continuum. Young people do not need to know exactly what service they need before they come through the door. Our role is to listen, understand what is happening, and help connect them to the support that makes sense for them.

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Supporting Healthy Black Youth | Ages 14–18

Supporting Healthy Black Youth creates culturally grounded spaces where Black youth can explore who they are, strengthen their voices, develop meaningful relationships, and build the skills and self-awareness needed to navigate adolescence and adulthood.

Through youth workgroups, curriculum, school partnerships, and individualized support, young people engage in:

• Self-awareness and personal development
• Emotional wellness and resilience
• Black history and cultural identity
• Leadership development
• Advocacy and social justice education
• Peer connection and community building
• Creative expression
• Mentorship and trusted adult relationships
• Individualized case management and support

The work is not simply about helping young people respond to challenges. It is about developing confidence, agency, critical thinking, connection, cultural grounding, and the ability to make informed choices about their own futures.

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Youth Employment Program | Ages 14–18

Urban Triage's Youth Employment Program creates pathways to economic opportunity while helping young people develop the skills, confidence, relationships, and experience necessary to enter and navigate the workforce.

Youth receive:

• Employment-readiness training
• Resume development and interview preparation
• Career exploration
• Job-skills development
• Job placement assistance
• Individual coaching and mentorship
• Connections with employers and community partners
• Early career development
• Ongoing support as they enter the workforce

Youth Employment Program participants:  35

Our approach recognizes that employment is about more than getting a job. Young people need opportunities to discover their strengths, understand workplace expectations, develop professional relationships, explore careers, and begin building economic independence.

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FROM HOUSING CRISIS TO HOUSING STABILITY

Housing stability is a critical part of Cultivating Healthy Youth. Young people cannot reasonably be expected to focus on school, employment, wellness, or long-term goals when they are worried about where they will sleep or whether their housing is safe and stable.

Urban Triage provides multiple levels of housing support based on each young person's circumstances.

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Youth Housing Navigation

Youth Housing Navigation is a distinct service within Cultivating Healthy Youth and an important part of Urban Triage's youth housing continuum.

Youth and young adults experiencing homelessness or housing instability receive individualized assistance navigating housing systems and addressing barriers to securing and maintaining stable housing.

Support may include:

• Housing searches
• Housing applications
• Financial assistance applications
• Landlord communication and negotiation
• Credit-building support
• Systems navigation
• Housing stabilization planning
• Advocacy
• Connections to community resources

Youth supported through Housing Navigation: 186

For some young people, navigation, resources, and advocacy may help them reach housing stability. Others require a more intensive housing intervention.

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Transitional & Scattered-Site Housing

Urban Triage's youth housing work includes transitional and scattered-site housing approaches designed to support young people who need more than housing navigation alone.

These services create pathways to temporary housing stability while young people work toward permanent housing, employment, increased income, and other goals they identify for themselves.

For youth and young adults fleeing domestic violence, Urban Triage provides housing-focused support grounded in safety, confidentiality, dignity, autonomy, survivor choice, and long-term stability.

Depending on the program and individual need, support may include:

• Transitional or scattered-site housing
• Rapid rehousing and housing stabilization support
• Housing navigation
• Financial resources
• Case management
• Systems navigation
• Advocacy
• Benefits and resource access
• Connections to community-based services

Youth and young adults supported through transitional/scattered-site housing: 6

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Emerging Adults Home | Ages 18–22

The Emerging Adults Home provides a stable, supportive living environment for young adults transitioning out of court-ordered placement and preparing for greater independence.

The program responds to a critical gap young adults can face when leaving structured systems without the stable housing, relationships, resources, and support networks many of their peers rely on as they enter adulthood.

The home is more than a temporary place to sleep. Residents receive relationship-based support designed to strengthen independence and prepare for long-term stability, including:

• Stable transitional housing
• Relationship-based case management
• Life-skills development
• Employment and career support
• Housing planning
• Systems navigation
• Emotional wellness support
• Goal development
• Independent-living preparation
• Long-term housing transition support

Urban Triage walks alongside residents as they make decisions, build relationships, navigate systems, strengthen daily living skills, pursue their goals, and prepare for independent adulthood.

Emerging Adults supported: 10

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The Cultivating Healthy Youth Continuum

Young people do not have to fit into one box to receive support.

A teenager participating in Supporting Healthy Black Youth may also need employment assistance.

A young person coming to Drop-In Hours looking for employment may also be experiencing housing instability.

A youth receiving Housing Navigation may need advocacy at school, employment support, systems navigation, or connections to other resources.

A young adult receiving housing support may participate in employment programming while developing the skills and resources necessary to transition into permanent housing.

A young person's needs can change over time. Our relationship with them does not have to end simply because one immediate need has been addressed.

That is the purpose of Cultivating Healthy Youth: to create a connected continuum of support around young people rather than expecting them to navigate fragmented systems alone.

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How We Work

Across Cultivating Healthy Youth, Urban Triage's approach is:

Youth-centered. Young people are experts in their own lives and active participants in determining their goals and what support looks like.

Relationship-driven. Trust, consistency, accountability, and authentic relationships are foundational to our work.

Culturally responsive. Our youth development work intentionally centers the experiences, strengths, history, identity, and realities of Black youth while our broader youth services support young people across our community.

Trauma-informed. We recognize how trauma, housing instability, violence, poverty, racism, and systems involvement can shape a young person's experiences without defining who they are or what they are capable of becoming.

Housing-focused. We recognize stable housing as foundational to education, employment, wellness, safety, and long-term stability.

Strengths-based. Young people are not problems to be fixed. They bring knowledge, abilities, ideas, goals, and lived expertise that matter.

Systems-aware. We help young people navigate the systems affecting their lives while recognizing and addressing the structural barriers that create unequal access, instability, and opportunity.

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More Than a Program. A Continuum of Support.

From a young person developing confidence and leadership skills, to a teenager preparing for their first job, to someone coming through our doors because they need a safe place or help finding housing, to an emerging adult preparing to live independently, Urban Triage is building pathways that meet young people where they are and remain responsive as they move forward.

Cultivating Healthy Youth brings those pathways together.

Youth Development + Education + Employment + Drop-In Support + Housing Navigation + Transitional Housing + Emerging Adult Support + Advocacy + Systems Navigation

Because stability is not one service. Thriving is not one program. Young people deserve a community of support around them.

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