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The success of youth-serving organizations is built on the strength and stability of a supported workforce. Every day across New York City, youth workers show up as mentors, educators, counselors, and trusted adults. They are the connective threads of our city’s youth development ecosystem, fostering thriving environments for young people and helping families stay connected to essential support systems. But despite their deep commitment and impact, this essential workforce continues to navigate barriers that demand our collective response and investment.
According to an online survey conducted by Edge Research for the AfterSchool Alliance, youth development professionals are facing unsustainable pressures that endanger program stability and youth outcomes.
These results mirror the realities of youth development professionals who bring unwavering commitment and ingenuity to their work, even as they are often stretched beyond capacity. Without immediate and sustained investment, over 2,500 youth-serving organizations in New York City face growing challenges to advance transformative programming. The ripple effects would extend beyond organizational walls, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people who rely on these programs for connection, growth, and opportunity.
The State of the Sector of Youth Development: Building Pathways to Thriving Careers conference, hosted by Youth INC and the Collaborative for Advancing Youth Development, offered a powerful opportunity to reflect on and respond to these challenges. The conference brought together over 280 youth development professionals, youth-serving organizations, city agencies, and funders to exchange insights and explore solutions for advancing job quality, promoting economic mobility, and fostering equity.
The day opened with the National Afterschool Association’s Job Quality Framework, highlighting how prioritizing job quality is essential to building a stable, thriving workforce that drives positive youth outcomes. Youth researchers then took the stage, offering compelling insights on the lasting influence of integrating positive youth development (PYD) into the early onboarding of young professionals. Their findings illustrated how this approach enhances youth outcomes while fostering emerging leaders’ professional and personal growth.
A dynamic panel of early-career professionals followed, sharing what drew them to the field and the support that shaped their journeys. As panelist Yagersys Laya of Beam Center, reflected, "I could be doing any other thing, but I chose to do this because I learned to love it, and I love it so much that I hope I can continue doing this." Their stories underscore a clear message that meaningful, stable employment matters, and they see themselves not just as beneficiaries of change but as co-creators of a stronger, more equitable field.
Throughout the day, sector leaders dove deeper into the building blocks of a thriving workforce. Marc Fernandes and Paul Vergara of Youth INC presented on building organizational culture through a positive youth development (PYD) lens. They shared strategies to foster a culture of continuous learning to create positive environments that support social-emotional growth and improve outcomes for youth and staff.
In another session, Krystal Cason, Tracie Gilstrap-Marshall, and Jaynellen Stokes-Walters of Youth INC explored key findings from the Youth INC Partner Network Compensation Report. Their discussion surfaced important workforce trends among New York City youth development organizations and offered equitable, non-monetary strategies to attract, retain, and sustain talent across the sector.
The day concluded with a powerful conversation between Karen Pittman of KP Catalysts and Rev. Dr. Alfonso Wyatt of Strategic Destiny: Designing Futures Through Faith and Facts. They called on attendees to reimagine not only how we support young people, but how we support those who walk alongside them. As Rev. Dr. Wyatt reminded us, “Helping people can’t stop at just seeing their potential. That’s not the stopping point; it’s the starting point.”
Whether in after-school programs, summer camps, or other out-of-school time settings, the youth development workforce is a strategic engine for social good and long-term community impact. When these professionals are well-supported, they create the conditions that help young people build the social and emotional skills needed to thrive in school, work, and life.
Youth workers are on the frontline, preparing the next generation of leaders, innovators, and changemakers. Just as we prioritize positive development for young people, we must cultivate environments that support positive development for adults, creating spaces where youth workers feel supported, valued, and empowered to grow. Yet, continued underinvestment undermines their ability to do this critical work - every unfilled role, every instance of burnout, and every under-resourced position chips away at the foundation of our city's future. If we fail to invest in the workforce that powers youth development and deny them a sense of purpose, stability, and belonging, we risk failing the bright, creative young people they serve.
At Youth INC, we understand that the success of youth-serving organizations relies on a stable, supported workforce. Our mission to strengthen the organizations that help young people thrive drives that commitment. Over the past 30 years, we have partnered with more than 200 nonprofits to scale their impact through capacity-building programs, ensuring that behind every success story are strong systems, sound strategies, steady leadership, and supported teams.
That work translates into building resilient organizations and unlocking transformational investments to reach more young people. But today’s challenges call for more. Workforce health directly impacts organizational health, which is why we focused this year’s State of the Sector of Youth Development conference on building a thriving workforce through job quality and economic mobility.
This work isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about building long-term systems that enable thriving careers in youth development, expanding access to professional development, and career advancement opportunities that reflect the value and complexity of this work.
By investing in the people and processes that drive long-term success, we help organizations shift from surviving to thriving. That means supporting workforce stability through training and coaching, strengthening boards to govern with clarity and accountability, and ensuring teams are resourced to lead strategically.
Solving the youth development workforce crisis will require collaboration across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Government agencies must prioritize workforce infrastructure in their funding strategies. Philanthropy must look beyond programs and invest directly in the people who power them. Corporate leaders must recognize this work as a civic responsibility and a strategic investment.
Corporate professionals bring invaluable skills, networks, and insights that can accelerate nonprofit growth. Through board service, operational support, and skills-based volunteering, their engagement can ensure that nonprofit leaders and their teams are equipped to grow stably, lead confidently, and drive lasting impact.
Just as nonprofits benefit from these cross-sector partnerships, they contribute immeasurably to the broader ecosystem. Nonprofits bring deep community trust, lived expertise, and agile innovation born from proximity to the issues. They serve as listening posts, first responders, and changemakers, offering insights and solutions no other sector can replicate.
As Karen Pittman, KP Catalysts, said, “When youth thrive, we all thrive. It’s not just about economics. It’s about the whole cycle of success.” When we invest in youth workers, we invest in the strength and resilience of entire communities.
The insights shared at the State of the Sector Conference remind us that the workforce crisis is profoundly personal and deeply structural. Several speakers captured this reality in ways that should stay with us as we move forward:
“Everybody can contribute to youth development. It’s a collective responsibility to support young people, and at the same time, be open to our own development.” — Marc Fernandes, Youth INC
“I like to say I’m a product of a great after-school program. I’m a professional and also a beneficiary of high-quality afterschool programs as a parent.” — Gina Warner, National Afterschool Association
“I do this because I want to give back to kids like me who grew up in youth development programs, but it’s a huge challenge to bear the weight of their futures.” — Olivia Joyal Bernard, Working the Gap Community Wellness Fellow with Cypress Hills Location Development Corporation & CUNY SPS
These reflections reinforce the central truth behind our mission: investing in youth workers is not ancillary to youth development. It is foundational. If we want thriving youth, we must create the conditions for thriving adults. That means building job quality into every funding decision, policy conversation, and partnership strategy, and ensuring that the people who power this work are valued, supported, and heard.
Imagine a New York where youth workers are fairly compensated, expertly trained, and fully resourced to lead with confidence - a sector where every young person is supported by adults who are positioned to grow alongside them. That vision took center stage at this year’s State of the Sector of Youth Development: Building Pathways to Thriving Careers conference. Bold cross-sector alignment will achieve this vision. If we want a New York where every young person can thrive, we must start by supporting those who guide them. The solutions are here. As a convener and connector, Youth INC stands ready to partner with nonprofits, funders, policymakers, and corporate leaders who believe in the power of building a vibrant and sustainable youth development sector.
