Youth Enrichment Services (YES), a long-standing youth nonprofit organization in Boston, has received a capital grant from the Yawkey Foundation to fund the construction of a new headquarters at 267 Amory Street in Jamaica Plain. The Yawkey Foundation’s longstanding support and commitment to youth recreation has been supporting YES for over 20 years with operational and capacity-building grants.
The Yawkey Youth Development Center will be a 16,000-square-foot, three-story youth development center that includes a state-of-the-art ski rental shop, activity space, classrooms, boulder climbing wall, outdoor mezzanine, and equipment storage.
YES has outgrown its current facility in the South End, which is too small to accommodate the growing number of youth who want to participate in the organization’s year-round sports-based and leadership development programs. The new facility will provide a much-needed safe and accessible bus and car loading/pickup/drop-off space. It will allow YES to expand its services to reach an additional 500 youth within three years and an additional 700 youth within five years.
The proposed building is within walking distance from the MBTA Orange Line (Stony Brook stop) and will include on-site parking spaces, a dedicated bus lane, and a pull-off for two coach buses. It will be in close proximity to two family housing developments, schools, and other youth-serving nonprofit organizations. Moving to Jamaica, Plain will allow for increased accessibility for families in need of YES’s affordable youth development programs and significantly strengthen the future of an organization that has been serving the youth of Boston for more than 50 years.
The new facility will benefit youth in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and neighboring areas by providing them with access to a wider range of enrichment and leadership development programming. The organization’s goal is to serve an additional 700 youth by 2028, with 58 percent of youth served to live in Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and YES’s future neighborhood of Jamaica Plain.
The YES facility will not only serve as a hub for outdoor experiences and leadership opportunities for youth but will also provide a much-needed safe space where they can learn, grow and develop the skills they need to succeed in life. The new facility will enable YES to continue to inspire and support young people in the Boston area for many years to come.For more information about the YES project, interested individuals can contact the organization’s Executive Director, Bryan Van Dorpe, at bvandorpe@yeskids.org. Learn more about Youth Enrichment Services and its mission to inspire youth through outdoor experiences and leadership opportunities at www.yeskids.org.
