YCC Wins Cummings Grant
The grant was part of the Cummings Foundation’s 2025 Cummings $30 Million Grant Program, which awarded 150 local nonprofits with funding. YCC was honored at an annual celebration in Woburn, which brought together over 375 nonprofit leaders, volunteers, and public officials.
YCC was founded in 2008 by concerned Lexington residents who recognized an urgent need for accessible mental health support in town. The organization provides a critical safety net for the community, offering a range of confidential services that are available at no cost and without the need for insurance. This ensures that financial barriers do not prevent young people and their families from getting the help they need.
Services include:
● Short-term Individual and Family Counseling: Offering up to 12 free sessions per school year for youth ages 11-22 who attend school in, reside in, or have a parent working in Lexington.
● Walk-In Wednesdays: A popular program that provides immediate access to a counselor every Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. for youth and families.
● Parent Support: Providing parent consultations and support groups on various topics to help families navigate challenges.
● Youth-Led Initiatives: The organization has a Youth Advisory Board, a diverse group of local high and middle school students who provide feedback on programs and help inform outreach efforts.
Since its inception, YCC has provided over 1,000 free therapy sessions and hosted more than 2,500 drop-in hours. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization saw a dramatic increase in need, tripling the number of one-on-one therapy sessions provided.
The grant from the Cummings Foundation will directly support YCC’s ability to continue meeting the growing needs of our community. Emily Hayes, Executive Director of YCC, said, “This new funding empowers us to continue our mission without interruption. It’s a powerful validation of the work our team does every day and will allow us to ensure no young person in our community is left without a place to turn for help.”
For more information, please visit www.youthcounselingconnection.org
Caring for young minds. Building emotional resiliency.
Youth Counseling Connection is dedicated to fostering emotional wellness by providing confidential and accessible mental health services to all Lexington students and families.
Youth Counseling Connection is built on these core values:
- Connection: Fostering strong, meaningful relationships within our organization, youth, families and the broader community.
- Compassion: Practicing kindness and empathy in all our interactions.
- Coping: Equipping young people and families with the skills and strategies needed to manage and overcome mental health challenges.
- Community: Actively engaging with and contributing to our local community.
Care: Prioritizing and providing free and accessible mental health support to our youth and families.
DONATE HERE:
1 Comment. Leave new
Congratulations to YCC for being awarded a grant from the Cummings Foundation. The services you provide, the hard work and dedication from your staff, the young people you help, the families who have turned to you and you have answered: no doubt this grant is deserved and hard earned.
I learned from this article that the YCC was born in 2008 from concerned residents who saw a glaring need for these services. You have come a long way in a short time and I congratulate you again.
Without knowing anything beyond your services to the people of Lexington, I may go out on a limb and guess it’s minimal. And that is fair and based on non-profit budgets, you don’t have the means to extend your services to communities that perhaps are underserved by homegrown programs like yours.
I truly don’t question your breadth of outreach you provide. And I don’t think the people of Lexington should have fewer services if you were to expand to lesser served communities where you may possibly make an even bigger impact.
What I am writing to ask of you is to take this opportunity and not expand services, but offer your knowledge and experiences in how you started the YCC 17 years ago to where you are today for concerned residents of lesser served communities.
Lexington is blessed with a large population of people who know how to advocate for themselves, who can take an idea like yours and turn it in to a viable working non profit that serves a community in areas that it needs services.
I don’t want or think you should change anything kn how you serve the people of Lexington. I just hope that you might realize how fortunate you are to be part of a community where this can happen and to use your expertise to mentor or teach or advise people in other communities where the support, direction, leadership, and vision may not be as clear and tangible as it is here.
An outreach to a community where they may not advocate as well as you were able to.
I hope the grant allows you to even consider taking action on what I am suggesting.
There is a good chance you are a step ahead of me here and I am preaching to the choir. But I just was moved by both what you have accomplished and the lack of programs like this in underserved communities and I thought I should say something.
Again, congratulations on the grant and your continued success. The work you do is truly remarkable and sadly, well needed. Keep it up.
James Dugan