Our Story

The life path for black and Latino boys is often the same. They leave high school without graduating, struggle to find employment, commit a crime and then find themselves in jail. The majority of which return to a community plagued by high unemployment, violence and a lack of hope. This cycle is known as the school to prison pipeline and frequently repeats generation, after generation, after generation. 

Improve Your Tomorrow, otherwise known as IYT was created in 2013 to break the school to prison pipeline by helping young men of color get to and through college. IYT started with seventeen students at Valley High School in South Sacramento; these seventeen laid the foundation for what is now the largest education nonprofit only serving young men of color in the country. IYT currently serves over 1000 young men of color through three academic programs, including the IYT College Academy, IYT Continue to Dream Academy and IYT U. 

IYT is unique because our students can enter the program as early as 7th grade and remain in the program for up to 12 years, or until college graduation. At IYT, we hire our college students to be on staff as Program Directors, Academic Mentors and tutors, creating what we call the college to community pipeline. The college to community pipeline is helping to bring young men from some of our city’s most challenging neighborhoods back into the community to help the next group of students get to college through the IYT Mentor Fellowship. 

IYT’s impact is real and life-changing. One hundred percent (99%) of IYT College Academy students graduate high school and ninety-four percent (90%) attend college. We achieve this impact by creating a community of brothers that are allowed to be their authentic self and who support each other.