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 help individuals and families build stability, strengthen self-determination, and create 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, opportunities to develop and lead, access to housing and employment, and the resources necessary to thrive.

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One Initiative. Multiple Pathways of Support.

Cultivating Healthy Youth brings Urban Triage's youth and emerging-adult programming together under one initiative, including youth development, education, employment, housing stability, advocacy, systems navigation, basic-needs assistance, and relationship-based support.

Rather than 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 for housing, employment, safety, advocacy, mentorship, or simply someone they trust. From there, they can access 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 transitions, or simply needing a safe and supportive environment can access:

• Housing and systems navigation
• Employment and job-readiness support
• Education, advocacy, and resource connections
• Basic-needs assistance
• Individualized guidance and case management
• Connections to other Urban Triage programs and community resources

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

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Supporting Healthy Black Youth | Ages 14-18

Supporting Healthy Black Youth creates culturally grounded spaces where Black youth can explore their identities, strengthen their voices, build meaningful relationships, and develop 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, emotional wellness, and resilience
• Black history and cultural identity
• Leadership, advocacy, and social justice education
• Peer connection and community building
• Creative expression and mentorship
• Individualized case management and support

The work goes beyond responding to challenges. It develops confidence, agency, critical thinking, cultural grounding, connection, and the ability to make informed choices about the future.

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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 needed to enter and navigate the workforce.

Youth receive:

• Employment-readiness training
• Resume development and interview preparation
• Career exploration and job-skills development
• Job placement assistance
• Individual coaching and mentorship
• Employer connections and ongoing workforce support

Youth Employment Program participants: 35

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 focus on school, employment, wellness, or long-term goals when they are worried about where they will sleep or whether their housing is safe. Urban Triage provides different levels of support based on each young person's circumstances.

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Youth Housing Navigation

Youth Housing Navigation helps youth and young adults experiencing homelessness or housing instability navigate housing systems and overcome barriers to securing and maintaining stable housing.

Support may include:

• Housing searches, applications, and documentation
• Financial assistance applications
• Landlord communication and negotiation
• Credit-building support
• Systems navigation and advocacy
• Housing stabilization planning and community resource connections

Youth supported through Housing Navigation: 186

For some young people, navigation, resources, and advocacy can lead to housing stability. Others require a more intensive housing intervention.

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Transitional & Scattered-Site Housing

Urban Triage's transitional and scattered-site housing approaches support young people who need more than housing navigation alone. These services provide temporary housing stability while young people work toward permanent housing, employment, increased income, and goals they identify for themselves.

For youth and young adults fleeing domestic violence, support is 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 stabilization support
• Financial assistance and benefits access
• Individualized case management
• Systems navigation and advocacy
• 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. It addresses the gap young adults may face when leaving structured systems without the stable housing, relationships, resources, and support networks many peers rely on.

The home is more than a temporary place to sleep. Residents receive relationship-based support that strengthens independence and prepares them for long-term stability, including:

• Stable transitional housing and relationship-based case management
• Life-skills and independent-living development
• Employment and career support
• Housing and long-term transition planning
• Systems navigation and emotional wellness support
• Individual goal development

Urban Triage walks alongside residents as they make decisions, build relationships, 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 or housing assistance. A young adult receiving housing support may participate in employment programming while developing the skills and resources needed to transition into permanent housing.

Needs change over time, and Urban Triage's relationship with a young person does not have to end when one immediate need is addressed. Cultivating Healthy Youth creates a connected continuum of support rather than expecting young people 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 setting goals and determining what support looks like.

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

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

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

Housing-focused. Stable housing is 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 systems while recognizing and addressing structural barriers that create unequal access, instability, and opportunity.

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More Than a Program. A Continuum of Support.

From building confidence and leadership skills, to preparing for a first job, finding safe housing, or learning to live independently, Urban Triage creates responsive pathways that meet young people where they are and remain with them 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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