YH’s Child Services and Community Programs
A comprehensive overview for families, partners, schools, and prospective supporters | September 2026
YH’s Child NFP is a faith rooted, healing centered 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving children, youth, adults, and families in Chicago. We strengthen emotional wellness, healthy relationships, family stability, education, prevention, and access to resources. Our work brings practical support and spiritual care into the same community space, while respecting each person’s circumstances, voice, and choices.
This overview describes our service approach, the kinds of support people can seek, and current program examples. Specific activities, ages, times, and availability may change; please contact us to confirm the right fit.
Our Mission and Approach
YH’s Child works between heaven and earth: we attend to the spiritual life of a community and the daily needs that shape a family’s wellbeing. We aim to create welcoming, culturally grounded spaces where people are seen as whole people, can build trust, and can take the next practical step toward support. Our guiding invitation is “Maintain Reach, Restore, Release.”
Reach
We meet people where they are through neighborhood outreach, community engagement, education, prevention, prayer walks, crisis support, and connections to resources. Reach includes showing up consistently, listening before assuming what a person needs, and sharing information that families can use.
Restore
We offer spaces for conversation, learning, relationship repair, and skill building. Families can connect with peers and community partners, explore ways to strengthen communication, and receive guidance toward additional supports when a need falls outside our own programs.
Release
We make room for healthy expression through art, music, movement, discussion, and faith practices. Creative expression helps participants name experiences, explore strengths, connect with others, and imagine possibilities beyond a difficult moment.
Children and Youth
Our child and youth services combine literacy, social and emotional learning, mentoring, creativity, and safety education. Activities are designed to be engaging and developmentally responsive, with opportunities to practice communication, cooperation, self expression, and positive relationships with trusted adults and peers.
Early literacy and learning
Stories and Snacks offers young children a welcoming setting to enjoy books, conversation, and shared activities. Literacy programming can incorporate storytelling, vocabulary, imagination, and family engagement. Our broader educational work may also include school readiness and learning support through community and school partnerships.
Youth social and emotional learning
Group activities invite youth to identify feelings, express themselves appropriately, listen to others, navigate conflict, and build belonging. Movement, music, visual art, and discussion provide different entry points so that young people can participate in ways that fit their strengths. Mentoring and school collaborations help connect these skills to everyday relationships.
Media and digital literacy
Tech and Media Literacy helps participants think about online information, digital habits, privacy, and responsible communication. Activities may be adapted for youth, older adults, or intergenerational groups. We seek to make technology less intimidating while helping people use it with care and discernment.
Family and Parent Support
Families need consistent relationships as well as useful information. We create opportunities for parents and caregivers to connect, learn, and be heard without judgment. Our family work includes support for mothers, fathers, prenatal and postpartum families, and caregivers who want to strengthen bonds with their children.
Parent connection and wellbeing
Mommies and Movement gives mothers space for movement, reflection, and peer connection. Tummy Time provides an early childhood setting for caregivers and babies to interact and learn together. Parent conversations can cover child development, emotional wellness, family routines, and resources relevant to participants’ own questions.
Fatherhood and family relationships
Donuts and Dads invites fathers and father figures into a supportive space for conversation and connection. Our Keep the Family Alive work centers healthy family relationships, communication, and community accountability. We welcome dialogue about the roles that fathers, caregivers, and extended family members play in children’s lives.
Resource navigation
During drop in hours and other points of contact, staff listen to immediate concerns, help people identify useful resources, and connect them with relevant community partners. Navigation can address family needs related to wellness, education, parenting, and stability. A referral is a connection to another provider, so service eligibility and availability are determined by that provider.
Mental Health and Wellness
We treat emotional wellness as part of everyday community life. Our programs create space to talk, move, reflect, and seek help. We recognize that stress, grief, violence, isolation, and family strain can affect people across generations. Staff and partners use a healing centered approach that values dignity, agency, cultural context, and supportive relationships.
Conversation and restorative practice
Talk and Trust uses guided conversation to help participants listen, share perspectives, and work through harm or tension. Multigenerational participation can help families and neighbors understand one another more fully. Community conversations and training also bring people together around practical topics that affect safety and wellbeing.
Expressive and clinical support
Expressive Therapy brings creative methods into a supportive group setting with a licensed clinician. Art, rhythm, movement, and conversation can help participants explore feelings and connections. Where clinical services or specialized care are needed, we work to connect individuals with qualified providers; participation in a community activity should not be understood as an individual diagnosis or a substitute for ongoing treatment.
Movement and mindfulness
Mindful movement, dance fitness, breathing, and other body based activities provide accessible ways to practice grounding, expression, and connection. Our approach allows people to engage at their own level and to notice how movement affects their emotional state.
Prevention and Safety
Prevention is woven through outreach, youth programming, family education, and community partnerships. We share information on recognizing risks, setting boundaries, identifying trusted adults, and finding support. Know2Protect and trafficking prevention activities address online and in person exploitation with age appropriate, practical education. Our aim is to help families speak openly about safety without placing blame on children or survivors.
Safety work also includes violence prevention, healthy relationship education, and community conversations about how to respond to harm. We collaborate with other organizations when a need calls for specialized expertise or coordinated response.
Faith and Community
Our faith is central to our identity. Bible Study welcomes people across denominations to read, discuss, and reflect together. Prayer, worship, music, and dance offer space for spiritual expression. Healing through YH explores foundations such as covenant, prayer, meditation on the Word, and operating in love. Participation in faith activities is an invitation; people seeking community resources can connect with us regardless of their religious background.
Through #TakeTheChurchToTheClub, we bring joyful dance and worship into community settings. #CongregationsUnited encourages relationships among congregations and people of faith. These movements reflect our belief that community care extends beyond a single building or service appointment.
Creative Expression and Community Learning
Our Release programming makes expression a tool for connection. Smoothies and Movies gives teens a setting to gather and talk about ideas sparked by media. Music, drumming, dance, art, storytelling, and other creative activities can help participants practice voice, collaboration, reflection, and joy. Community training sessions provide a place to share information and build practical skills together.
We also use gatherings and special events to bring neighbors, service providers, and families into relationship. These may include family engagement events, resource sharing, seasonal activities, and the Keep the Family Alive convening focused on mending family relationships.
How We Work With Partners
YH’s Child works alongside schools, congregations, public agencies, health and behavioral health providers, and community organizations. Partnerships can take the form of referrals, cohosted workshops, program delivery, outreach, resource tables, and shared planning. We seek to coordinate around the needs and preferences of participants while being clear about each partner’s responsibilities.
A school or community partner can contact us about youth social and emotional learning, family engagement, literacy activities, prevention education, restorative conversations, faith and community events, or resource navigation. Program format and staffing are shaped with the host site and depend on capacity.
Visit and Connect
YH’s Child NFP | Carter G. Woodson South, 4444 S. Evans Avenue, Room 329, Chicago, IL
Website: www.yhschild.org | Email: yhschild1111@gmail.com | Phone: (773) 242-9428 | Instagram: @yhschild
The organization has shared weekday office hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., walk in hours from 1 to 3 p.m., and after school programming generally from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Please contact us for current schedules, registration details, accessibility needs, or partnership inquiries.