United Teens Equality Centre (UTEC) - Lowell, Massachusetts
Innovative funding ideas
These days, teenagers often feel their potential is ignored by judgemental communities, but across the Atlantic, the residents of Lowell, in Massachusetts, have been celebrating the achievements of its young people and their involvement in the United Teen Equality Centre.
UTEC has an active youth membership of about 1000, nine full-time paid staff, and runs 18 different classes and programmes every week, and will soon be expanding their facilities and making them fully accessible and energy efficient.
Director of Development Jessica Wilson said: "It's the place you go if you want to talk to teens."
The United Teen Equality Centre, like most other donor-dependent programmes, is vulnerable in the current economic climate, but the staff and volunteers refuse to give in to the Recession. They are constantly coming up with new ideas for funding which includes not just grants and individual donations, but exciting and novel income streams.
For example their new building will include a café selling goods produced by young people using their centre's cooking equipment. Hiring out their activities hall for dances, conferences, and other events is already bringing in vital funds, and is expected to play an increasingly important role in generating future income. The hall is cheaper to hire than other similar venues, so it is the ideal solution for groups that might not otherwise be able to afford such a facility.
The Centre started out in the late Nineties, when a group of young Americans in Lowell used a single grant, volunteer staff of three, and a year's budget of just $40,000 to create a safe place for young people to go. Today UTEC is a fast-growing hub of positive youth activity in the city, with a successful track record in both funding and youth involvement.
UTEC found that having a positive place for teens to spend their free time benefits the whole community, so they've put a lot of effort into reaching both young people and the wider community. By making sure the project maintains a positive image with the residents of Lowell through effective communication strategies, UTEC has managed to forge good longstanding relationships between the different generations living in the city, which is beneficial when it's time to start fundraising.
The Centre's values have always focussed on ‘the personal touch'. Jessica finds having the young people show their donors what and who their money will help to be one of the most essential aspects of fundraising. UTEC fundraisers adapt their fundraising strategies to individual donors, and recently came up with a programme to encourage each of their board members to bring five friends to see their centre, with the aim of producing a continuously growing network of supporters.
Current and potential donors get to see the advantages of the centre to their community, and are given demonstrations of the young people, who volunteer at the showcases, and their facilities.
UTEC originated from the ambition of a group of teenagers, and while over the years they've found it necessary to hire more adult staff, young people are still involved in almost every aspect of running the centre. UTEC's staff members are generally young, or young at heart, making it easy for the centre's members to relate to them and to share common interests.
A committee of 13 teens work with adult staff on most aspects of the centre. They initiate, help organise, and evaluate the activities programmes. They even assist with funding applications and financial management, and they are involved with day to day operations, including helping to decide who to hire and how to discipline misbehaviour.
Jessica said: "You need to consider youth involvement every time you do something new...Make sure it's a fair balance between adult staff and the young people."
The diversity of the programmes on offer has helped significantly with the achievements the Centre has made with youth involvement and raising money. Jessica says many potential funders have certain areas in which they are specifically interested, such the arts or work skills education. Such funders are more likely to support the centre if their money is going to the programme that appeals to them.
Having lots of different programmes on offer has also given UTEC broad appeal with different groups of teens. Chantay Otero, a teen who works with Wilson at the centre, explains in simple terms how certain activities attract particular groups of young people: "So, for example, we don't really get skaters at the centre - if we had a skate park maybe we would."
UTEC continues to grow, and soon they'll be moving into their new facility. Youth involvement will continue to be at the heart of their work. Chantay said: "Young people have the ambition - you just have to give them the tools."
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Resources 
United Teens Equality Centre Case Study (
