Students join PFY when they are 14-16 years old and are encouraged to re-enroll each year until they complete their first year of college or turn 19 years old, so each class is made up of students who have been in the program for varying amounts of time.

Each student participant is matched with a team of four mentors:
1) a community-based mentor – an adult who meets with them at least 4-6 hours/month, year-round;
2) a tutor- a Duke student who tutors them twice/week;
3) a school-based mentor – a teacher the students asks to support them at school; and
4) a job-based mentor – an adult at their summer job site. The group engages in activities year-round.

Each month, students and community-based mentors meet to focus on topics such as budgeting, interviewing, and team-building through interactive games and experiences. During the school year, students attend tutoring twice/week on Duke campus. Students meet at school with their school-based mentors at least one hour/month, practicing how to create and maintain a mentoring relationship on their own. Students hold a paid internships in the summer and work with a job-based mentor on site. Internship sites have included Durham Regional Hospital, Durham Community Land Trustees, and the Biomedical and Biotechnical Research Center at North Carolina Center University.

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Our History

PFY was founded by Duke University as part of the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative (NPI). Before any work was begun, the NPI conducted a needs assessment of the twelve neighborhoods identified as partners. In Southwest Central Durham, respondents to a survey expressed strong interest in exposing teens to positive role models and information about careers. PFY was created in direct response to the results of this survey and has worked exclusively with teens in Southwest Central Durham.

In March 2004, PFY became an independent non-profit organization. One of the goals of the NPI is to help empower organizations that serve its partner neighborhoods on issues identified by the community as priorities. When it became clear that PFY could operate on its own, it became an independent nonprofit. The Office of Durham and Regional Affairs and the Office of Community Affairs remain supportive partners in our work, providing us with transportation for our tutoring sessions and space on campus to hold the sessions, as well as in-kind donation of food and printing services.

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Our Staff

Partners for Youth
Staff and Board Members, November
Julie Wells
Executive Director
(November 2011)