The Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI) unites the University and the wider Seattle community to support the development of successful youth, thriving communities and an engaged neighborhood.
The Youth Initiative strives to strengthen education and support systems for 1,000 neighborhood youth and their families while enhancing the University by providing service, learning and research experience for students, faculty, and staff. Launched in 2011, the Youth Initiative is the largest community engagement project in the institution’s history and a signature element of the University.
Meet the SUYI Community Advisory Board.
When families are engaged in their child’s formal school experiences, their children often show improved performance in all grade levels, regardless of a family’s background or socio-economic status.
The Seattle University Youth Initiative provides campus—students, faculty, staff, and alumni—with opportunities to lead for a just and humane world.
Seattle University is nestled in the midst of historic and dynamic neighborhoods, each of which has tremendous leaders who make Seattle a wonderful place to live, learn and serve.
The Sundborg Center for Community Engagement makes positive and lasting impacts through programs for local youth and families.
The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) connects campus and community to empower leaders for a just and humane world. The connections CCE fosters are expansive, encompassing thousands of university students, faculty, staff, community partners, local Seattle residents, families and youth scholars.
CCE has three interconnected goals: (1) build capacity for social change in Seattle, (2) engage students and faculty to serve, learn and lead for a just and humane world, and (3) advance the field of community engagement in higher education.
In 2011, Seattle University and its community partners launched the Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI), the largest community engagement initiative in university history. Through SUYI the university partners with the City of Seattle, the Seattle Housing Authority, Seattle Public Schools, dozens of community-based organizations, and hundreds of residents to create a “cradle to career” pathway of support for youth and their families living in a two-square mile neighborhood adjacent to campus.