Youth Advocates was formed in 1969 as a drop-in center for adolescents who were living on the street or experiencing major conflict at home. Youth Advocates found itself working with the most deeply troubled children for whom returning home was seldom possible. During its early days, the agency spent substantial amounts of its efforts planning programs for children who would have been detained for long periods of time in the juvenile detention facility because they could not return home and had nowhere else to go for services or treatment. For 35 years, Youth Advocates continued to grow and change to better serve the needs of these troubled youth in our community. In 1975 Youth Advocates was licensed as a child-placing agency and became a member agency of United Way.

The Youth Advocates Foster Care Programs serve youth referred from the Washington State Division of Children and Family Services. We focus particularly on those adolescents who have a history of behavioral and emotional difficulties and a history of unsuccessful placements. Reaching out to those high-risk teens with multiple behavioral and mental health issues, our experienced case managers and treatment foster care parents create individualized community-based programs to meet the needs of each youth. We are able to respond to the needs of those adolescents for whom the system has failed. Our strengths include long-term retention of foster homes and longer placements for youth within these homes.

Often, these youth have had dozens of foster home placements, a high incidence of drug, alcohol, sexual and physical abuse, academic failures, mental and emotional instability and may be considered too difficult for other agencies. We believe the keys to our success include our commitment to providing strong program services, a dedicated, highly qualified staff and our organization's non-institutionalized approach to providing services.

Youth Advocates is a valuable community resource, with a proud history and proven track record of offering quality, well run programs, and also friendship and support to any kid in trouble. Our case managers are available 24 hours, seven days a week to respond to the needs of their clients and to offer their experience an compassion to alleviate potential crisis situations. Our history, beginning as a grassroots organization, still lives on. The staff caseloads are kept small, and each case manager is able to develop relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Once a youth leaves our program the doors are always open; for many kids we are the closest thing to a family they have.