The Young Women's Project

Youth health educator program (yhep) - Young people come into our organization as peer educators through The yhep, a partnership with dc health and dcps, where they work in their schools and communities educating their peers, distributing condoms, and referring youth to clinics. Youth staff earn 15 an hour, work on teams and with a manager, apply their skills, develop professional behavior, and put together a portfolio of work products. In 2021, we hired and trained 182 youth staff from all wards and 24 public schools, who engaged more than 12,000 of their peers through health education, social media, and referrals that connect youth to essential mental and sexual health resources. In year one, peer educators engage in a rigorous curriculum that teaches sexual health and peer education as well as life skills;

Youth justice campaigns (yjc) - in year two, youth educators join The yjc, where they work as advocates and organizers to advance a bold advocacy agenda based on The real-life issues, and leverage their power through collective action to advocate for change and improve youth-serving systems. Ywp has 40 youth advocates meeting twice a week and working on four main campaigns: increasing youth and career opportunities, expanding school-based mental health services, improving public education through youth engagement in transition planning and budget decision-making, and expanding youth voting rights.