Alexandria’s Children and Youth Community Plan (CYCP)
The CYCP is a roadmap for how the our community will work together to create the conditions for all young people to thrive in Alexandria. Updated every five years, the CYCP 2025 builds upon the original Plan’s foundation and progress while updating it for the future. This was accomplished through a collaborative effort whereby 2,100 community members, 88% of whom were youth, engaged in an hour-long workshop called "Build Your Legacy" designed to craft a vision of where we want to go and how we are going to get there. Youth involved in developing the workshop believed that this was their opportunity to leave their legacy in Alexandria. The result is a plan that centers equity while preventing harmful experiences and promoting positive ones.
HISTORY
In 2014, the Children, Youth, and Families Collaborative Commission (CYFCC) submitted to City Council and the Alexandria School Board the original comprehensive Children and Youth Community Plan (CYCP), a blueprint to improve outcomes for children who call Alexandria home. The 2014 CYCP included a vision statement that reads “All of Alexandria’s children and youth can thrive today and tomorrow” and five cradle-to-career goals. In 2019, the Commission released a Five-Year Report on the first five years of the CYCP. The Report highlights our community's contributions to improving children's outcomes. It also focused our attention on the racial, economic and social disparities that continue to persist, showing us where there is clearly more work to be done.
Goals and Strategies
The City of Alexandria, Alexandria City Public Schools, and youth-serving organizations will work together to promote equitable access to the resources needed for all children to be healthy, safe and academically successful. Our community is stronger when all young people can realize their potential. The image below is the Strategy Map for the CYCP 2025. It provides a high-level snapshot of the CYCP 2025 vision, goals, objectives, and strategies.
Goal 1: We will ensure that all children, youth and families are physically safe and health
Objective Level: Start Healthy and Connected - Create the conditions for children to have a strong start in life and support economic stability among families
Strategy Level:
- Increase participation in early childhood education and care
- Promote health, wellness and wellbeing
- Prevent risk-taking behaviors
- Connect families to transportation, housing, financial, employment and technology resources
- Preserve our natural environment
Goal 2: We will ensure that children are academically successful and career ready
Objective Level: Support Academic Success and College and Career Readiness - Advance educational equity and prepare youth for post-secondary success
Strategy Level:
- Foster supportive learning environments
- Light pathways to college and careers
Goal 3: We Will ensure that children, youth and families have positive experiences
Objective: Decrease ACES, Increase Assets - Build safe, stable and nurturing environments and relationships
Strategy Level:
- Minimize exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood trauma
- Create trauma-informed and resilient communities
- Build Developmental Assets®
Overarching Strategies: Ensure our systems that serve children, youth, and families are well coordinated and equitable.
Objectives: Systemically address racism, advance equity, and strengthen organizational capacity
Strategies:
- Design, implement, and evaluate solutions that undo racism, end discrimination, and advance equity
- Strengthen organizational capacity in the areas of staffing, infrastructure, communication, funding, planning, monitoring, evaluation, and professional development
Get Involved
To learn more about the City’s youth and family services, training opportunities, building positive relationships with youth, and how you can make a difference in you community, contact CYCP Coordinator, Chelsea Eickert at Chelsea.Eickert@AlexandriaVA.Gov.