To join our growing coalition of King County youth-serving organizations (or to renew your membership), please submit a Member Commitment Form! This form is the best way we’ve found to collect baseline information about our Members. We use the organizational information you share with us to do our work better:
- We advocate for durable, equitable, and sustainable funding for the youth development sector, and we help our members learn about relevant funding opportunities.
- We build trust and collaboration between organizations and across sectors, and we work to build partnerships and affinity groups based on service type, region, or other criteria.
- We support the social emotional well-being of our members and the young people they serve, and we share information about strategies and upcoming events.
- We are led by our members, and we support them to be led by the people they serve.
The more data each Member organization shares with us, the better we can do our work to strengthen youth-serving organizations and the youth development field!
By submitting the Member Commitment Form with a contribution of $25 or more, you agree to the commitments below and indicate that your organization is a nonprofit that directly serves youth (ages 5 to adult) in King County.
Who are our Members?
YDEKC’s mission is to connect, strengthen and amplify the leaders of youth serving organizations so that all Black, Indigenous and youth of color thrive.
YDEKC is a diverse coalition of youth-serving, community-based, and non-profit organizations across King County, WA. With a focus on equity, our members embrace a youth development approach to support BIPOC young people to reach the future they envision. Our members partner with schools, communities, and families to ensure every young person has what they need to learn, grow, and thrive.
YDEKC strives to center antiracist policies and practices in our work to ensure that leaders at every organizational level have opportunities to strengthen their skills and peer networks to advance along their own pathway. We also work to strengthen the youth development field through advocacy and awareness-raising of the critical work that our sector does to build the ecosystem of supports young people need to thrive.
YDEKC Member Organizations are community-based and non-profit organizations directly serving youth ages five through young adulthood within King County.
While our members are direct service providers, we have a limited number of mission-aligned strategic partners that we also list among our members, as denoted by an asterisk (*) on our member page.
- Direct access to decision makers and critical information about policies and funding impacting youth serving nonprofits and the young people they serve through activities like our Lunching with Leaders events and regular communications.
- Representation of shared interests and issues to decision-making tables. YDEKC staff (and sometimes members representing our coalition) sit on the Seattle Human Services Coalition, King County Alliance of Human Services, the Road Map Project and more (including several other advocacy-focused coalitions) to ensure issues facing our organizations are represented.
- A diverse community of peers facing similar challenges of leading a nonprofit in King County.
- Free or low-cost trainings and professional learning opportunities for you and your staff around issues of organizational effectiveness including racial equity, partnerships, and measurement and evaluation.
- Washington Nonprofits Membership discount: As a YDEKC member, if you’d like to become a member of Washington Nonprofits, sign up using the discount code (which we will share in your Member Welcome letter) and receive 25% off your membership with Washington Nonprofits.
- Access to research, information, and toolkits about best practices in youth development through our website, communications, and events.
- Being listed as a Member of YDEKC in print or online publications;
- Collaborating with YDEKC around policies and advocacy positions that benefit young people and the organizations that serve them — see our full policy protocols and equity screen;
- Participating in collaboration and deepened partnerships with one another and with other sectors like K-12, which can lead to a stronger ecosystem of supports for children and youth in King County;
- Addressing racism and racial inequities in our own organizations and institutions while also working for the policies, programs, and systems in other sectors that will lead to optimum outcomes for all.
- A Youth Development Approach: Based on a synthesis of decades of youth development field building, we define a youth development approach as an approach that: fosters identity-safe, relationship-rich spaces; honors each person’s story and strengths; provides opportunities for skill building; and centers youth voice and choice.
In addition:
- Members are required to submit their membership renewal form and contribution annually. If no form has been submitted within the 2-month campaign period, YDEKC will issue a “Membership deactivation” email and remove the organization from our member list.
- Notify us when there is a leadership change. Twice per year, YDEKC will conduct a review of the Executive Director/CEO and/or designated senior leader for each member organization. YDEKC also encourages organizations to proactively notify us when there is a change.