Hartford Knights Youth Organization

About Us

Our History

Hartford Knights Youth Organization is a non-profit youth mentoring education organization [501(3) C] dedicated to enhancing the lives of Greater Hartford’s “at-risk” youth. Since 2000, Hartford Knights has developed and provided help to the community for over 20 years, with support through mentoring, tutoring, higher education assistance, intervention, and athletic programs. Hartford Knights’ staff, and volunteers have been highly effective in the consistent delivery of services that support and nurture Connecticut’s Greater Hartford area’s most vulnerable children (At-Risk). Over 1000 youth have participated in HKYO’s sports, academic and behavioral programs and supported over 120 students in college.

Our Mission & Focus

To create hope & opportunities that promote self-esteem, social competence, and academic achievement, and to provide mentorship that builds character, perseverance, and resilience in Hartford’s youth.

Our mission’s focus is driven by enhancing the lives of youth in the Greater Hartford area through academic enrichment, youth intervention services, and organized sports programs that promote career readiness, character building, and leadership skills development.

Our Values

Our leadership and organizational team are representative of and shares the lived experiences, challenges, barriers and obstacles our clients and community face. We honor and respect our clients’ and community’s trust in us to serve as a validating voice in advocating for systems changes to transform learning experiences and address equity for our children, their families and schools. 

We define and share individual and collective goals, outcomes, and processes to guide our work. We recognize and evaluate the impact of our actions – intentional or not – on each other, the organization, and our communities. We continue to learn and adjust to better align with our values.ᅠ

We work to create a culture and environment that, in words and actions, recognizes and values diversity, equity and inclusion of all our clients, volunteers, employees, board, allies, and supporters. We are committed to leading with inclusive practices and treating all people with the utmost dignity and respect.ᅠ

Equity is the cornerstone of our mission and is centered across every organizational goal and approach including our policies, practices, partners and resources to create genuine opportunities for our children, youth, their families and community to thrive. 

We cultivate an organizational culture of open and honest communication, collaboration, and connection between employees, board, volunteers, clients, and our communities. 

We strive for a collaborative approach to our work and to the issues and experiences of youth development and empowerment. We acknowledge the complex root causes for the racial disparities impacting our community. We believe that all members of our community are deserving of investment to design and lead the community solutions that will build and support families and communities.

Hartford Knights Youth Organization

Our mission is to create hope and opportunities that promote self-esteem, social competence, academic achievement through mentorship that builds character, perseverance and resilience in Hartford's youth.

Our Approach

Focus Areas: 
• Youth Mentorship and Community Empowerment 
• Community Education and Civic Engagement 
• Health Advocacy Coalition Building

Vision

The Hartford Knights Youth Organization envisions a future Connecticut where all children, youth and their families are included and supported in making their communities healthy and prosperous places to grow, thrive and succeed regardless of their race, ethnicity socio-economic status or zip code. Impact: In 5 years, HKYO will be a preeminent youth mentoring and advocacy organization providing Connecticut’s most vulnerable children with the self-empowerment and capacity building skills to be civically engaged, affording every child HKYO serves equitable opportunities to be healthy, to feel safe, to feel valued, to learn and to thrive.