• Community name: Coatesville
• Community or city website
• Population: 41,609
• Graduation rate: 81.9%
• Youth poverty rate: 28.9% 

Overview

For the first time, Coatesville has been named among the 100 Best for its dedication to fostering a nurturing environment for its young residents. The Coatesville Youth Initiative helps improve graduation rates and post-graduate readiness, but also engages parents and creates mentoring opportunities. Academic success is also a main focus for the collaboration among the 21st Century Community Learning Center, Art Partners and Bridge Academy, which recruits teachers, community educators and volunteers to work in after-school programs. Coatesville has also made its at-risk youth a priority with programs like Family First, which provides in-home mental health services for children and families. Teen Court also helps at-risk youth by providing alternative sentencing to keep young people out of the criminal justice system. Through its efforts, Coatesville has made a deep commitment to creating a better community for its young people and continues to promote healthy youth development and prevention of youth health and behavioral issues.

Community Programs

• The Coatesville Youth Initiative is part of a year-long planning process that focuses on four key areas: improving graduation rates and post-graduate readiness, engaging parents, creating more and better mentoring opportunities, and improving program coordination.
• Family First is designed to provide clinical and case management services in the home to families of children and adolescents who are considered at-risk for out-of-home placement.
• The Maternal and Child Health Consortium works to improve maternal and child health for local community members.
• The Community, Youth, Women's Alliance, provides shelter for women and children in the form of a halfway house where women recovering from addiction are reunited with their children and given housing and employment assistance.
• The 21st Century Community Learning Center, Art Partners and the Bridge Academy recruit teachers, community educators and volunteers to work in their afterschool programs.
• The Coatesville Youth Initiative Service Corps is an employment program that keeps local youth out of trouble by providing training opportunities.
• The Juvenile Justice Collaborative’s Teen Court, helps keep young people out of the criminal justice system through alternative sentencing.

Youth Voices

I help with the afterschool program in Coatesville. From the program, I have gotten so many opportunities that I have loved and enjoyed.

—Nelson

I am proud to be part of Chester County Futures. This program has helped me in many ways: My mentor helped me to realize that nothing is more important than an education. I am now an honor roll student.

—Anonymous