WELCOME! History of Youth On Purpose

Youth On Purpose began in 1996 as the "Fri Sikt" Project, meaning "clear view" or "open view" in Swedish. Specifically, Sandy Levey-Lunden while teaching one of her sixteen classes in Sweden, had a person in the class raise their hand and say that they had read in the newspaper that a father was suing his son for his total investment in time, energy, and money because he would not get out of bed for two weeks. The son stated that his reason for this behavior was that he had no reason to live and no motivation for life, and had no where to go in the future. Sandy at that point felt like she could make a difference in this boy's life and any other youth's life that felt they had no purpose in living also.

In 1998 the poignant movie of this two year long project called "The Difference," won second place as the best documentary in Sweden and also went to the Cannes Film Festival that year. The movie can be viewed on the YouthOnPurpose.org website as well as YouTube. In Vancouver, Canada the project called Youth On Purpose continued for five years, operated successfully by the Youth On Purpose Society of Canada. For two years the project ran in Halifax, Nova Scotia simultaneously as Youth On Purpose Atlantic.

In November of last year, Sandy Levey-Lunden was teaching a class called the Power of Clearing: Certification Course to train coaches in her method. Some of the participants in this class wanted to bring the Youth On Purpose program to the United States for the first time, specifically to the western Washington regionm abd so Youth on Purpose, USA has been created as a new 501(3C) and is waiting final approval from the federal government. The organization has been approved from the state of Washington to be a 501(3C).

Who are the Youth, and where do they come from? Participants come from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some are straight-A students with a desire to improve their relationship with their parents. Others may be considered at risk youth with a challenged family background and are troubled by difficult circumstances in their lives. We have a melting pot of youths at Youth On Purpose who all come to work together and experience a true family, joining in a bond of a higher purpose. Our project has shown the youths after participating in the youth project show a 82% success rate in the past.

Sincerely,

Sandy Levey-Lunden