%20copy.jpg)
About The Organization
The Youth Institute of San Antonio (YIOSA) is a 501 (C) (3) non profit organization that provides an intensive and comprehensive early prevention, intervention and social redevelopment program targeting youth ages nine through seventeen. YIOSA was formed to counteract the negative effects of the proliferation of problems affecting our youth in today's society.
The YIOSA program is based on a model of change through social influence. It incorporates multiple levels of prevention and intervention directed toward youth and their parents, families, and communities and is a model community demonstration project that can be accurately depicted for replication in all communities.
The YIOSA program is designed to address the following target areas:
-
Reducing the factors that propel youth to become involved with negative solutions to problems by changing attitudes in the environments in which they live.
-
Providing families and communities with practical tools to combat youth's involvement with unfavorable persons of influence and situations.
-
Coordinating and integrating activities of local, state and federal resources.
Specific objectives of YIOSA are as follows:
-
To develop and implement an educational and recreational program for youth to prevent negative activities. When necessary, YIOSA implements an intervention program targeted at youth ages nine through seventeen. In part the program is designed to:
-
Enhance self-esteem.
-
Improve life skills, decision making, and other coping skills.
-
Promote positive and healthy peer relationships.
-
Enhance school performance and behavior.
-
Strengthen resistance to negative activity.
-
Teach constructive ways of having fun in the community.
-
Specific objectives of YIOSA are as follows:
-
To develop and implement a program of education and support for the parents and families of youth participating in the YIOSA program. The purpose of the program is to:
-
Enhance effective parenting skills.
-
Increase parents' knowledge of community services and activities.
-
Improve family relationships.
-
Teach educational information related to what their youth are learning in school.
-
To develop and implement a program of community support and cooperation for YIOSA youth and their families. This program is designed to increase involvement of community members and agencies with the needs of youth and their families in the community.
-
To conduct an on-site analysis of the climate with respect to the targeted problems; disseminating information based on the findings and establishing collaborative efforts with appropriate groups directly involved in the change process.