Michael Roberts with CYD students and alumni, 2015

January 2025 launches CYD’s celebration of 30 years helping young people forge paths to success. This will be a year of many challenges for vulnerable communities around the country, and CYD’s goal is to advocate, support, and provide resources for young people to grow into self-sufficient adults who can become leaders in our society.

Expanding Options, one of our signature approaches, has become a catchphrase. For the past several years, CYD has developed strategies to give students a variety of higher education pathways – college, certificate training programs, and more – to connect to the 21st century economy. In this 30th year, our goal is to launch an aggressive new implementation strategy to:

• Build skill sets at the high school level that will help students connect to work.
• Create clear pathways from high school into certifications that lead directly into employment.

Doing the most we can with the resources allocated for young people, CYD has maintained an incredible ROI on a very tight budget. However, in order to deepen the work, continue to innovate, and provide students with more individual college and career advising and 21st century skills, we need to develop more resources. You can help by recommitting to our mission and joining us in building stronger outcomes for success. Share our information with a friend or colleague, invite someone to visit CYD, volunteer. You and your family, friends, and community can help our young people move into successful futures where they are not just surviving but thriving!

To those of you who have supported our mission over the years, I thank you, and the thousands of young people you have supported thank you, too. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary this year by honoring the heroes who built CYD and the young people who are its soul. Stay tuned for event information and sponsorship opportunities. Let’s have the best New Year!

Warm regards,

Michael Roberts