Our Story
Youth & Family Services is a nonprofit organization that has been serving children and their families since 1965. YFS has grown to become one of the largest, most comprehensive youth development programs in western South Dakota. What began as Girls Club of Rapid City has grown to encompass nine cohesive programs that offer education, meals and snacks, health advocacy and support, counseling services, fatherhood and parent enrichment education, and prevention programs.
YFS has a rich history of partnering with other service providers in an effort to have greater impact, be cost effective and avoid duplication of services. Looking to the future, YFS has announced several new critical initiatives that will ensure positive growth and support for future generations.
Critical Initiatives include:
• Building a network of coordinated services and resources that give children hope by meeting their needs. Children with unmet needs lack resiliency to face the challenges of life and lose hope for a future of opportunity and happiness.
• Building a strong endowment to ensure programs can continue to effectively meet the current and future needs of children in our community and go uninterrupted during trying economic times.
• Serving an additional 3,000 to 5,000 children and families in western South Dakota by expanding girls' and boys' health advocacy, fatherhood programming, childhood obesity prevention, infant, toddler and preschool child care, Girls Incorporated®, and other successful programs into the northern Black Hills.