For Immediate Release: February 10, 2022

The City of Alexandria Children & Youth Community Plan 2025 (CYCP) sets long-term priorities and provides a roadmap to success through community-wide coordination and delivery of services to all city children from birth to 21 years-old and their families. 

CYCP 2025 goals include ensuring that all children, youth and families: 1) are physically safe and healthy 2) are academically successful and career ready and 3) have positive experiences.

The CYCP is guided by three principles: 1) trauma-informed approaches to raise awareness of the prevalence of trauma and target root causes 2) racial equity, which aims to correct systems and policies that negatively impact Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and 3) the use of developmental assets to mitigate adverse childhood experiences.

Each month, the CYCP highlights one of many areas of progress through the CYCP Report Card. For this month, the CYCP looks back at January to feature mentorship. Research shows that young people who have three or more adults who support them (not including parents/guardians) feel happier and more hopeful, do better in school and are less likely to drink, smoke or do other drugs, especially if the adults can listen without judging.

The Search Institute Survey, Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors, 2019 showed that only 2 in 5 young Alexandrians have three or more caring adults in their lives. Be it a neighbor, uncle, older cousin, coach or volunteer— young people want adult mentors besides their parents to count on and the CYCP 2025 collaborators are making it happen.

See the January Report Card and find out how CYCP collaborators have increased mentorship in the city, the impact it had, and how individuals and organizations can be involved.

As a partner in the trio comprising the City’s Unified Implementation Team, the Department of Community and Human Services CYCP Coordinator is working with Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Health Department to align their three respective five-year strategic plans in areas of shared goals. Learn more about the Unified Implementation Team and their plans.

Visit CYFCC Report Card for more information.

For inquiries from the news media, please contact Coordinator Chelsea Eickert at 571.447.8132 or chelsea.eickert@alexandriava.gov.

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This news release is available at: alexandriava.gov/go/3360