Market Analysis

Market Analysis:

Y.E.S. was well aware that a market existed in the city of Poughkeepsie for a youth organization that could address the needs of disadvantaged and troubled youth. They knew this because the organizers lived with the problems resulting from these troubled youth in downtown Poughkeepsie. Picking up the Poughkeepsie Joumal ahnost any day of the week and an article could be sited reporting a recent crime or arrest of a youth under 17 years of age. In January of 1994 the Poughkeepsie Journal ran four part series called Juveniles and Justice: Everyone's Crisis written by Macy Beth Pfeiffer and this series concretely supported that Y.E.S. had a clearly defined market in the city of Poughkeepsie. " The rise in juvenile crime is overwhelming Dutchess' courts, prosecutors and police. It is beyond the capacity of the county's youth and family service agencies to prevent, or of its juvenile justice system to cure. It is rooted deep in the breakdown of American families, in a society that, experts say, gives too little help to children in trouble and gives it too late. It is a revolution that has intensified greatly in Dutchess County in just the last year. The revolution shows no sign of abating, experts within the juvenile justice system say. The only bright side, they say, is that it is attracting attention and, with it, a recognition that something must be done. " ( Poughkeepsie Journal Sunday January 9, 1994 ) Y.E.S. had worked closely with the Small Business Development Center from Marist College and has established with market research through the SBDC that there is a scarcity of services for troubled youth. There are programs , however, nation wide that have pioneered the waters and have developed working models for programs that assist these youths.