Youth Chance High School
Youth Chance offers a healthy and supportive learning environment where students that have not succeeded in traditional schools, can reach their full potential.
Each year, school principals, counselors, teachers, parole officers and alumni refer students who need a fresh start to Youth Chance. Students take core academic courses to pass the GED or receive a high school diploma. They also meet mentors and learn vocational skills. We take a comprehensive and integrated approach that is individual and community centered. Using the Embarcadero YMCA as a hub, Youth Chance High School convenes community partners to help students rise above adversity.
Did you know that for the last five years 94% of youth victims of homicide have been high school dropouts?
More than a third of all California teens drop out of high school.
For more information:
Contact Principal Chris Chatmon at 415/957-9622
or email
Youth Chance High School was established at the Embarcadero YMCA in 1978, funded in part by the Mayor’s Office, to help youth “get off the streets” and enter the job market.
In 1979, Youth Chance was granted private school status by the California Department of Education. For more than 30 years, this school has combined academic enrichment and vocational training with the YMCA character values and youth development practices to help students with the greatest need find a path to move on to their adult lives with dignity, mentors, job skills and a GED or high school diploma.
My daughter graduated from Youth Chance High School some seven years ago. It was the happiest day of my life. She had been to five high schools, in a gang and somehow I found Youth Chance. She had a mentor, a job and wonderful people around her. It took her three years to complete her GED. It was the first time she had ever hung in there and finished anything. I owe my daughter’s life to Youth Chance and I’ll never forget what they did for her and for me.-- a parent of a Youth Chance student.
Veevi found a community to help achieve her dream of finishing high school and attending a UC.
When Veevi Deng’s boyfriend was killed in a drive-by shooting, the native San Franciscio Excelsior teen became depressed, fell behind in her studies at Galileo High School and dropped out for two years.
Eventually, a friend brought her to a YMCA supportive services program called CARE and her case manager there told her about Youth Chance High School where she is now in her second year. For 31 years, Youth Chance has helped San Francisco teens who have dropped out or been kicked out of high school move on to their adult lives with dignity, community, skills and credentials. Courses include: workplace technology, life skills, rooftop gardening, portfolio presenation, YMCA achievers, mindful meditation, online academics with NovaNET, newsletter and Youth & Government. They also meet mentors and prepare a portfolio of work for college entry and future employers. Veevi plans to graduate with AP courses this spring and would like to become a vetrinarian.
I’ve gotten over a lot and I actually like going to school here. I do the work and the teachers help me whenever I need help. I keep telling myself that I might get into UC San Diego and that keeps me trying.