partner with us
When you partner with Avenues for Youth, you make a difference in the life of a young person experiencing homelessness. As a community partner, you can help provide vital support and dollars, advocate for equity, and learn about the root causes of homelessness. Avenues expects to house and support 300 youth in Minnesota this year, and it takes a community to do this work. As a faith group, corporate partner, business group, or civic group, you can partner with Avenues in a way that feels right for your organization. Learn about our engagement opportunities below.
Contact Kevin Kjonaas, Associate Director of Development, to learn more about and become a Community Partner of Avenues. kkjonaas@avenuesforyouth.org.
Ways to Partner with Us
Youth Engagement
Every year Avenues supports ~300 youth experiencing homelessness. That means that we have hundreds of opportunities to celebrate, uplift, and care for youth in our community! Community partners can engage with youth in a number of ways, including:
- Birthday Buddy Program: Help us celebrate a birthday of a youth by providing a card, cake, and gift. This is a great way to directly make a young person's day.
- Home Helpers Program: Create a home-like environment for Brooklyn Avenues and Minneapolis Avenues residents. Community partners will provide holiday décor supplies or materials (like pumpkins for Halloween) and help make our houses feel like home.
- Community Activities: Sponsor an activity in the community to let youth be youth! Sponsor transportation to the Mall of America, provide tickets to an event, or sponsor an at home party.
- Aftercare Care!: Set up youth for success in their new apartments by helping furnish a youth's new apartment after moving out of Avenues.
In-Kind Drives
We are always looking for supporters who can schedule a drive to help supply our programs with hygiene products, clothing, towels, diapers and more. Often we have urgent needs that are time-sensitive. We are looking for partners who can be on-call for urgent needs.
Volunteering
Due to COVID-19, on-site activities are paused to keep youth at Avenues safe. We still have a number of opportunities that volunteers can attend outside or off campus, such as:
- Skill-based Volunteering: Does your company or staff have unique skills that can be applied to Avenues?
- Lawn and Home Care: During the warmer months, help maintain our grounds to make our sites feel like home.
- Summer Garden: Plan and plant gardens on the grounds of our sites. Community partners will help water, weed, and cultivate the flowers and fruits, and help provide fresh produce for youth.
Educational Conversations
Learn more about the intersections causing and perpetuating youth homelessness by engaging in an education conversations. Our staff can lead conversations about the root causes of youth homelessness or Pride Chats, discussions about LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and Avenues' ConneQT Program.
Financial Support
Making a gift to Avenues is the fastest way to make a direct impact on youth homelessness. There are many opportunities throughout the year for your organization to make a meaningful gift:
- Sponsor at Building on Dreams: Building on Dreams is Avenues biggest and annual event! Draw attention to your organization by joining top tier local and national businesses sponsoring Building on Dreams.
- Events: Create your own fun fundraiser! We have the online tools to help you set up online fundraising for special events, like bike rides, bowling parties, house parties, and whatever you can imagine.
- Direct Donation: Does your company or group have the capacity to make a direct gift to Avenues?
Program Support
Avenues programs are staffed 24/7 and during the pandemic, staff have taken on extra duties while limiting the number of people and supports who can come into the buildings. Help us appreciate our staff by providing lunch, gift cards, or other gestures of gratitude for staff.