The Center

The Center for Youth & Community, Inc. (The Center) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization located in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Built on lessons learned decades earlier since 1990, we have been engaged in a wide variety of education, youth development, evaluation, training and organizational consulting and management of non-profit and direct service activities.

In partnership with individuals, communities, indigenous people and institutions throughout the world Dr. David Blumenkrantz and the Center have become a leading thought partner and resource in defining, explaining, adapting and putting into practice the theory of “youth and community development through rites of passage.” Through “thought partnerships” we collaborate to learn together, share information that fosters social innovation and supports the transfer of knowledge in ways that nourish life and fosters a world that works for all.

Our mission is to promote positive youth development and to assist children in the transition through adolescence to become healthy adults connected to their communities.

It’s About Reciprocity

We accomplish this by supporting the conditions for building effective school and community-based strategic partnerships with parents, youth, teachers, counselors, cultural, civic and community leaders. Rather than a program, we promote a reciprocal process between youth and community development that includes an architectural structure. These structures include 20 interrelated elements that serve as design principles to guide the integration of education and community resources for:

• Rite of Passage Experience^© (ROPE^®) (An exemplar of youth & community development)
• Rites of Passage for Parents – “Collision of Transitions”
• Innovative After-School Strategies that connect play and learning
• An Initiation of Scholars^© Strategy for grades 5-8 that improve academic performance and foster respectful and compassionate school climate.
• “Finding Your Bliss” Initiation into the world of Play as Secular Spirituality.
• Giving back – Community Service as part of an overall “coming of age” process where volunteering is expected as a desired characteristic of maturity and exemplar of adulthood.
• A college level Rite of Passage Experience^© initiative designed specifically to foster bonding and commitment to college and to combating binge drinking and other health-compromising behaviors.
• Establishing a foundation for intervening with children & their families if problems arise by reframing therapy as part of an ongoing process of initiation where “problems” are another “ordeal” to be overcome with the support of the community and skills learned in ROPE^®.