Who We Are

Vision:

Collective Action for Youth’s vision is to create communities where all youth can thrive.

Mission:

Collective Action for Youth leverages community power and centers youth voices to create equitable, systemic solutions rooted in shared leadership, responsibility, and accountability.

We believe the people most impacted by systems should have a meaningful role in transforming them. By centering lived experience and bringing young people, communities, and partners together, we work to build solutions that create lasting change.

Our Story

Collective Action for Youth began in 2017 as the Harris County Youth Collective, growing out of a shared need for better coordination among the systems serving young people involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

While many organizations, agencies, courts, and advocates were committed to supporting these young people, their efforts were often disconnected. The Harris County Youth Collective was created to bring those efforts together—building stronger partnerships, improving coordination, and ensuring young people received more connected support.

Our early work helped bring the Crossover Youth Practice Model from Georgetown University's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform to Harris County, where it became the foundation for the county's Dual Status Youth Practice Model. We also built partnerships and shared strategies with communities across Texas, including Bexar, Travis, Dallas, Tarrant, and McLennan counties.

Becoming Collective Action for Youth

In 2021, our work evolved beyond coordination alone. We became Collective Action for Youth, an independent 501(c)(3) organization with a broader commitment to youth leadership, community power, and systems change.

Today, CA4Y works alongside young people and communities to address the systems and conditions that impact their lives. We combine direct support, mentorship, leadership development, community engagement, and advocacy because we know meaningful change requires both supporting young people today and transforming the systems that shape their tomorrow.

At the center of everything we do is a simple belief: those closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions. Young people are not just participants in our work: they are leaders, partners, and powerful voices for change.