WINNER
Award of Excellence
(CDE) 2006
WINNER
Award of Excellence
(CDE) 2010
WINNER
Advocates of the Year
(CASC)
WINNER
Leadership Award
(Northrop Grumman)
WINNER
Vanguard Award
(NAACP)
Our Story
The work of the Young Center began in the 1990s when actor-educator William Allen Young established the Young Foundation. Mr. Young, who grew up in Watts where student success rates were among the lowest in the nation, recognized the critical need to counter the alarming decline in student success rates in local LA schools.
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The Foundation soon partnered with the LA Unified School District to implement its Education Incentive Plan to improve student success rates at 13 "failing" District schools. To accomplish its ambitious goal, the Foundation mobilized provided tutoring and mentoring for underperforming students and classroom support for struggling teachers at failing schools. The organization also sponsored free-breakfast programs during the Standardized Testing period and provided scholarships for college-bound seniors. As a result, student success rates improved and the Foundation's Plan was adopted at K-12 schools districtwide.
In 2000, the Foundation was renamed as the Young Center for Academic & Cultural Enrichment. Building on its earlier success, the organization expanded its focus to encompass youth leadership and community development.
With support from Northrop Grumman Corporation, the Young Center soon launched its award-winning California Youth Think Tank, now ranked as "the nation's #1 youth leadership training program," and its highly successful College Prep Academy & Youth Ambassador programs.
Today, the Young Center is a nationally-recognized nonprofit leader and is the winner of 5 prestigious Awards of Excellence in Youth Development. Students from over 250 schools have participated in Young Center programs and the organization has produced a generation of distinguished college graduates from over 80 colleges and universities to date.