Foundation for Social Connection and Sewickley Valley YMCA Partner to Launch Youth Action Guide Lab

Pittsburgh-area teens will lead community listening sessions and co-design an action plan to strengthen social connection across socioeconomic lines.

SEWICKLEY, PA, UNITED STATES, November 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Foundation for Social Connection (F4SC) and the Sewickley Valley YMCA today announced the launch of their Youth Action Guide Lab and Leadership Council, a youth-led initiative designed to strengthen social connection and expand access to opportunity for teens across Ambridge Area, Cornell, Moon Area, and Quaker Valley school districts.

Young people’s futures are shaped not only by individual skills and resources, but also by the relationships and networks they can draw on for support, mentorship, and information. Yet teens in this region often have few chances to build relationships across school districts or income lines, limiting their exposure to new peers, perspectives, and opportunities.

“The YMCA has long been a place where people from different communities and backgrounds come together,” said Trish Hooper, Sewickley Valley YMCA CEO. “This project gives young people a meaningful role in creating that future — building relationships across differences, identifying what their communities need, and developing solutions that can strengthen the entire region.”

The Youth Action Guide Lab adapts F4SC’s Action Guide for Building Socially Connected Communities – a six-step framework that helps communities understand local needs, engage residents and partners, develop strategies, and measure progress – into a program plan for teens ages 14-17. Over the course of the project, teens will learn about social connection, host community gatherings and listening sessions, build their own social networks, and use what they hear to design an action plan to foster social connection.

“Relationships are a powerful but frequently overlooked pathway to opportunity,” said Jillian Racoosin Kornmeier, Executive Director of the Foundation for Social Connection. “This project puts young people at the center of identifying what social connection looks like in their communities and gives them the tools to shape solutions themselves.”

The Sewickley Valley YMCA received a Richard King Mellon Foundation Grant and will collaborate with the Foundation for Social Connection. The Sewickley Valley YMCA, which has served the region since 1894, will lead youth recruitment and day-to-day implementation, drawing on its role as a shared gathering space for families across the four school districts. F4SC will serve as a technical assistance and evaluation partner, providing training, coaching, and measurement tools throughout the project.

Interested youth can learn more and register at www.sewickleyymca.org/edu-leader. Parents, educators, and community partners interested in supporting the Lab or learning more about the program are encouraged to contact Marc Smith, Senior Director for Youth Teen and Family at the Sewickley Valley YMCA at 412-741-9622, x103, or msmith@sewickleyymca.org.

Shannon Vyvijal
Foundation for Social Connection
shannon@social-connection.org
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Written By: EIN Presswire