Youth Leadership and Action (YLA) initiatives develop leadership potential in youth and encourage those youth to be catalysts for social change. YLA provides training, coaching, networking, resources, and personal support as youth take responsibility for creating change on the issues that matter to them and to the community.

In Youth Leadership and Action we evaluate our success in three ways. First, we ask participating youth to assess their own learning and growth, comparing their attitudes, knowledge, and skills before and after their involvement with us. Second, YLA staff who work directly with youth provide their own assessment of the growth and development of each young person. Finally, we note changes in organizations and institutions that occur as a result of the work of the YLA program. We understand that real change in institutions and in individual youth takes place over long periods of time. Therefore, we work to achieve the incremental changes that we know add up to stronger, healthier youth and stronger, healthier institutions. Current YLA initiatives include:

Teenedge.com Internship Program
This is a year-long internship program for creative teens interested in helping run the Teenedge website: "http://www.teenedge.com" run completely for and by teens. Interns gain experience with community issues as they practice web-based media, video, and journalism skills to bring a youth perspective to current events.

Oasis Community IMPACT (OCI)
OCI works with East Nashville youth to promote educational and economic equity for urban youth, schools, and neighborhoods by cultivating grassroots leadership through youth organizing. OCI youth are currently working on several important issues including work with the Nashville Neighborhood Alliance to fight predatory lending. In addition, they are working to create a Student Bill of Rights for public high school students in Nashville. For more information, visit the Teenedge Website OCI Page. 

Youth United
Youth United is a group of youth from neighborhoods and schools strongly impacted by violence. Their purpose is to help Nashville reject violence and promote peace through youth organizing. As part of their work, Youth United members bring a youth perspective to Metro Nashville’s Community Coalition for Youth Safety. Youth United is supported by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control in collaboration with Meharry Medical College.

Tennessee Youth Advisory Council (TYAC)
TYAC is a group of current and former foster youth from the Nashville area who work to improve the lives of youth in the foster care system. Youth in TYAC promote provide advocacy for foster youth issues on the local and state level and work to connect foster youth with the resources they need to succeed.

This program is made possible in part by generous funding from the Andrus Family Fund whose mission includes collaborations "with those working to create safer environments, whether physical, emotional, or psychological." Andrus recently created a new website, The Transitions Knowledge Bank, with Bill and Susan Bridges and NYU's Center on Violence and Recovery that focuses on "Transitions" and sustaining social change.