Join us in Welcoming Project Safety Net (PSN) to the YCS family!
We are pleased to share important news: Project Safety Net (PSN) is joining Youth Community Service (YCS).
As one organization with a combined staff and board, YCS and PSN will bring together YCS’s longstanding work advancing youth wellbeing through service-learning, community connection, and leadership development with PSN’s community-led coalition focused on youth mental wellness and suicide prevention.
This decision follows more than a year of thoughtful discussion by both boards about how to sustain and strengthen our shared work. It reflects a simple belief: young people thrive when they have a meaningful connection, a voice in shaping their communities, and caring adults and systems ready to support them.
With PSN now calling YCS home, we are building a more cohesive and sustainable network of community collaboration and care. Together, we will elevate youth voices, strengthen community connection, and mobilize action to address the root causes of suicide and promote wellbeing for today’s and tomorrow’s youth.
Building Our Shared Future
As YCS and PSN come together, young people will have more opportunities to define the challenges they face, shape solutions, and lead the change that matters most to them.
The strength of both organizations has always come from the people who contribute their time, knowledge, resources, trust, and lived experience. Coalition partners, youth volunteers, youth groups, and community networks will continue to have a seat at the table—and a home—at YCS.
Our shared vision is a community where young people feel safe, supported, accepted, and empowered to shape a better future. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has brought PSN and YCS to this milestone, and we look forward to what we will build together.
United We Rise: Together for Youth Wellbeing
Saturday, October 17, 1-3 pm
A special fundraiser celebrating PSN becoming part of YCS and bringing our community together around youth wellbeing. Enjoy a bottomless ice cream sundae bar, jazz music, a panel on youth wellbeing. Early bird tickets include a uniquely designed handmade bowl from our dear friends at the South Bay Ceramic Studio.
We look forward to welcoming you– united we rise,
Sally Bemus
Chair, Youth Community Service
Peter Stone
Chair, Project Safety Net (2020 - June 2026)
About our two organizations
PSN was created in 2009 in response to youth suicides in our community. Since then, it has grown into a trusted collaboration of young people and youth-serving organizations, parents and caregivers, educators, clinicians, elected officials, faith leaders, community members and more who have mobilized on behalf of youth mental wellness and suicide prevention. During the past year, PSN has provided a crucial space for community members to grieve, convene, and collaborate following youth suicides.
YCS was founded in 1990, on the belief that young people flourish when they connect with one another and lead positive change. By working with community partners to offer service-learning and youth leadership opportunities, YCS helps young people exercise their agency, experience a sense of mattering, and improve their communities and the wider world.
Questions?
Learn more about what is ahead by reading our Helpful Information: