Urban Native Youth Organization came from a vision to bring opportunity to our youth that social barriers restricts from them as native people. Urban Native Youth have historically been ignored and underrepresented in a system that is designed to assimilate and/or remove all indigenous people from existence. UNYO set out on a mission to dismantle those systems of oppression and to enlighten those that work within that system to challenge those policies. 

The importance of the role of our native youth in a world that is changing and growing so rapidly due to the information that they have access to, because of the internet and social media, is to poise them to make a difference in this world. UNYO became a space committed to equipping the youth with tools they need to be well informed, influential, and decisive leaders. In order to do so they must have a great understanding of the health inequities and disparities that affect our most vulnerable members of our community. 

UNYO set out to create youth leaders who will not only know how to read the data, but how to translate it into ways to create positive and effective change. UNYO committed to creating leadership curriculum that will teach them to be responsible for the information they gather and how they are going to implement it into they’re work. UNYO's journey is to identify those most vulnerable members of their communities, identify what are the issues and circumstances that not only put our communities at risk, but keep them for generations. 

It was envisioned that our traditional teachings, culture, language and sports programs are designed to help our youth find there value and self-worth in this community that is not determined by white, supremacist, patriarchal, individualistic and self-serving values. UNYO has been built to teach youth that success is not determined by how much they can acquire, but by the relationships they hold and keep sacred. Through sports our youth learn skills and values like good communication, reliability, selflessness, team building, encouragement. It is through our work we will make a difference. It is through our commitment we will show our strength. It is through our practice we will show love.