New Avenues For Youth
Meet the Partner
New Avenues for Youth is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing and addressing youth homelessness. Founded in 1997 in response to rising numbers of youth experiencing homelessness in downtown Portland, New Avenues for Youth has since helped more than 30,000 young people overcome barriers and realize their potential. Their services range from providing basic services like meals to providing opportunities for education, job training, employment, and housing for young people aged 9-25.
Opportunities
New Avenues for Youth had 12 different programs and services that were spread across four separate websites, with each one addressing a different audience. Our goal was to simplify things. We wanted to create a single, easy-to-navigate website that resonated with all their stakeholders, from program managers and donors to youth and volunteers.
Strategy
With four different websites each tailored to a specific program or audience, we needed to consolidate all the content into a single site. Mapping the information architecture was not an easy task since we had to inventory each site and get program manager input all while making sure we didn’t duplicate pages, actions, or leave anything out.
Execute
We collaborated with Revere on design to create a visually appealing website that was also functional for each audience: youth looking for resources, volunteers eager to get involved, and donors looking for ways to contribute.
We designed the site architecture to highlight each program without overwhelming users. Through a “Programs” dropdown menu, visitors can now easily navigate to the specific program of interest.
We also implemented a few key features and elements. First was ensuring the entire site was mobile friendly since most of New Avenues’ users access their site via mobile. Second was an emergency exit feature that allows at-risk youth to quickly and discreetly leave the page – a small but significant feature for safety and peace of mind. Finally, we ensured that the entire site was fully bilingual, supporting both English and Spanish.
Since New Avenues is a nonprofit and relies on donations, we integrated their third-party donation system directly into their website to streamline the donation process and encourage more visitors to donate.
Accelerate
To ensure that New Avenues’ team could easily update the website, we built the backend to be completely user friendly. This way their team doesn’t need to rely on developers for every little change they want to make.
The End Result
Not only does New Avenues’ new website look great, it also makes it easier for their multiple audiences to find what they’re looking for and connect with New Avenues for Youth’s mission.
“Working with Intuitive Digital to design and implement our website was a wonderful experience. We brought their team our ideal and they were able to make it work within our budget! They really captured our personality and two years later it still resonates with folks.”
Catharine Hunter
New Avenues for Youth
