About Us
Vision
Developing healthy, principled and creative young people valued as members of the community.
Mission
Inspiring young people to realize their inherent potential as valued members of the community and inspiring adults to recognize this same potential.
Who We Are
Alternatives, Inc., founded in 1973, is a nationally recognized youth development nonprofit. Everything we do is designed to build the specific assets that support young people as they grow into creative, compassionate and responsible adults. This means helping young people to:
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Identify and manage their feelings
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Form positive friendships
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Make good decisions
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Creatively problem solve
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Discover their creativity and unique talents
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Make a difference in their community
We're making the community better and safer by providing youths with engaging activities and molding them into upstanding citizens through leadership and civic engagement opportunities.
Strategic Goals
Governing Principles
Alternatives fosters a creative, innovative, fun, energetic, respectful, loving, highly functioning work environment, infused with respectful relationships, interdependence, quality of work and clarity of work. We use the following principles to guide our behavior and the choices we make:
Service
Our actions incorporate a spirit of giving and selflessness from which we derive our inspiration and commitment to help others.
Harmony
Our actions reflect respect for the ideals, ideas, and capabilities of each other, and customers and foster cooperation and collaboration in all aspects of our interactions.
Competency
Our actions reflect a commitment to continually develop and apply the knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary to provide quality products and services to our customers.
Commitment
Our actions reflect a deep personal belief in the power of young people that inspire the promotion of our mission and its potential to change the world.
Interdependence
Our actions demonstrate the ability to create or sustain mutually beneficial relationships to accomplish our mission.
CASEL Framework
CASEL, The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning, is an evidence-based framework we utilize to design and conduct our programming. The CASEL framework promotes knowledge, skills, and attitudes that address five broad areas: competence, self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. These competency areas aim to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
