Diane DeLong

Sometimes the best ideas to support youth come directly from teens themselves. Such is the case for Homework Help, a free kindergarten through eighth-grade tutoring program conceived and led by North Star Youth Partnership’s Peer Assistance & Leadership (PAL) program at Prescott High School.

Today’s teens face a myriad of issues and pressures like no previous generation. The rise of social media dangers and associated crimes has been prevalent in the media.

As adults, we know that life can change in the blink of an eye, but what is the best way to help teens understand how the choices they make can have life altering consequences? For the past 21 years, local youth organizations led by Catholic Charities’ North Star Youth Partnership, Matforce, and the Yavapai County Community Health Services, have a winning strategy to accomplish this mission.

Over the past 25 years, North Star Youth Partnership, a program of Catholic Charities, has established a strong network of volunteers and partnerships with schools, youth-serving organizations, and businesses in central and northern Arizona to provide youth with high quality programming.