In 1994, the Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health, Inc., was created.  It was endowed with $2.4 million, which was generated by the sale of the not-for-profit HMO, Mid-Hudson Health Plan.  The Foundation is an independent foundation which is charged with focusing on the health needs of the youth in the former service area of this HMO.

        One of the first acts of the new Foundation was to hold a public information meeting, where all the area not-for-profit organizations were invited.  These organizations were then asked to present and vote upon their largest concerns, as related to youth health in the area.  The list generated forty-five major concerns, from which the top ten were adopted as the current focus of the Foundation.  These ten concerns are parenting, alcohol and substance abuse, sexuality, quality education, leisure activities, family support, basic health issues, mental and emotional health, child care, and domestic violence.

         The Foundation took the ten largest concerns of the area not-for-profits and began working on how to begin addressing these concerns.  The Foundation, after laying the ground work for the functioning and governing of the organization, began awarding grants to programs that dealt with these ten major concerns.  The program are reviewed and overseen by the Board of Directors.

            Currently, fifteen individual programs are being funded and overseen by the Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health.  The youth involved cover much of the service area.  Current programs touch on all of the concerns included in the mission statement.

        One example of a very successful program is the Home Space program.  It gave many poor families in Columbia County food, a safe place to stay, and help in getting back on their feet.  At the same time, it has trained 74 teens and adults as HIV/AIDS educators, helped may teen mothers find jobs or obtain a college education, and helped many youth and their parents to become and remain drug and alcohol free.  In another program, the Youth Leadership Program, area teens were provided with internships which helped teach them time and money management skills as well as direct job training.  Other programs have dealt with other issues, such as the Family Domestic Violence Parenting Program, which helped children and parents who have been victims of domestic violence and learn how to function as a family and cope with difficulty.

        During the 1996 program year it was estimated that almost 5,000 youth and their families participated in programs funded and overseen by the Foundation.  Of these 51% were Caucasian, 28% African American, 8% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 11% were classified in other groups.  Participants in these programs ranged from birth to 21 years, and covered all age groups in between.  Most of these programs were successful enough to be renewed for the 1997 year and continue their valuable work.