Leadership Grant Feature: YSS

YSS focuses on providing hope and opportunity for youth by putting them first. Their services focus on education, stability and counseling all combining to create hope and opportunity for the youth of Iowa. The organization recently received a Leadership Grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines to continue to fulfill their mission and serve more youth through the creation of the Ember Recovery Campus.  

Ember Recovery is an experiential recovery treatment program for teenagers and had previously operated out of various homes throughout the Des Moines metro area. However, the program found itself outgrowing those homes.  

YSS began to imagine the Ember Recovery Campus which sits on 50 acres of land that includes a main hub, cabins and outdoor recreational spaces. The campus will also have 70 beds available for those going through treatment as well as crisis stabilization and emergency shelter for youth.  

To summarize it simply: “Ember Recovery represents Iowa’s largest investment in children’s behavioral health in a generation,” said Andrew Allen, President and CEO of YSS.  

Every part of the Ember Recovery Campus was built intentionally to be trauma informed and experiential. As Allen summarized, “the campus gives us the tool to support what is a crisis right now as it relates to youth mental health, substance use disorder and overdose deaths.” 

Allen is most excited about the project as it means there will “finally be a space and facilities that are commensurate with the level of care kids need and deserve.” And for YSS that level of care is focused on prevention and pursuing recovery at a young age. The importance of both is something Allen understands personally. He is an alumnus of the program and credits it for saving his life at age 17.  

“It is my story. I’ve had the opportunity to work for Principal Financial group in a leadership role and now lead the organization that saved my life,” said Allen. “If we can get to kids early with treatment, we can change the course of their lives.”  

Construction for Ember Recovery Campus is underway, and donations can be made to the project through GIVEdsm. You can learn more about the project here.