In our workplaces and schools, in our organizations and the neighborhoods we call home, we face increasingly complex problems. Young people today are growing up in a world far more challenging than any of today’s adults ever did. At the same time, they experience less support: schools have less money and time for social-emotional development; fewer parents are at home when school is out; fewer adults volunteer to serve the youth in their communities.

How do we reduce violence and substance abuse? How do we educate young people to be active contributors in their schools and communities. How do we provide them with the support they need to meet the challenges they face as they grow up?

Together we can find answers.

Community Matters envisions a society of safe, healthy, productive, and sustainable communities, where all youth and adults belong, join together, learn from one another, and serve the greater good.

Our Mission
At Community Matters, our mission is to promote positive youth development. We equip individuals and organizations with the knowledge and tools to build communities where all children and youth can feel safe, connected, and empowered.

Positive Youth Development
Positive youth development is a process of creating environments and relationships that support the social, emotional, spiritual, physical, moral, and cognitive development of young people. It requires creating opportunities and providing support:

• Opportunities for young people to get their developmental needs—safety, love, meaning, respect, power, challenge, belonging and mastery—met in pro-social ways.
• Opportunities to belong without joining a gang, to experience power without a weapon, to make an impact without a bomb, to leave a mark without tagging a building.
• Opportunities to be active contributors to their families, schools, churches and communities.
• Support that recognizes and respects the whole person inside each youth, not for who s/he will be in the future but for who s/he is today.
• Support that imparts necessary social values and develops essential skills.
• Support that sets boundaries while encouraging exploration, growth, and healthy risk-taking.

  Our Roots
  Birthed in 1990 from the vision and passion of Executive Director Rick Phillips, Community Matters has grown from a committed two-person team in 1995 to an equally committed and vibrant team of more than fifteen skilled professionals in 2006. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we have expanded to respond to the needs of schools and community-based youth-serving organizations in the United States and Canada.

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