The KEY Collective

The KEY Collective (KEY to Empowering Youth) envisions every child without the financial means having the same opportunities that are available to their peers, available to them, without any social stigma attached.

The KEY Collective was started in 2017 as a result of a grant awarded by Exeter Hospital through their Suicide Prevention Grant Initiative to establish the Key Collective and the #areuin? card program.

The #areuin? card program streamlines the eligibility process for obtaining scholarships and discounts for programs offered to students in youth sports and other related activities. By using the Free & Reduced Lunch program, Medicaid, and qualified validators as financial income eligibility for the program, the need for program partners to verify income for each applicant is eliminated.

This program was started to give our region’s students access to other programs, services and goods that they might typically not have access to due to financial constraints.

The program partners with local organizations to offer free or significantly reduced memberships, services and/or goods to these vetted students.

The desired outcome is to have this group of students feel as though they have the same opportunity as their peers with financial means, without having to experience the stigma of going through the red tape to be eligible for the programs and services our partners offer.

Streamlining the verification process is important as it reduces the stigma and social barriers to accessing a number of programs such as sports, arts and other community initiatives.

To date, we have provided over 500 memberships to youth in financial need, partnered with 20 youth out-of-school programs and have served over 16 towns throughout the seacoast region. Our vision is to continue to grow and offer this much needed program statewide.

The #areuin? card provides our most vulnerable youth the opportunity to participate in out of school programs and activities for free or at a reduced cost with no social stigma attached.

The way we do that is by offering the card to economically disadvantaged K-12 youth through 3 different avenues.

1. The Federal Free & Reduced Lunch program

2. The Medicaid program

3. Qualified & Approved Validators

After a student receives their card, they can use the card to enroll in local programs & activities through our KEY partners such as Exeter Area YMCA, Girls on The Run & Exeter Parks & Recreation (to name just a few). There is no need to fill out paperwork or provide personal financial information each and every time a child is interested in participating in a program or activity because having the card pre-qualifies them for the scholarships.

To date, we have mainly partnered with sports-based organizations, as many of these organizations have scholarship funds available to use, but we realize that not all youth’s passion is sports, so to be able to offer other out of school activities such as music, art, dance, yoga, karate, etc., we have added a scholarship program where the KEY Collective provides #areuin? card members up to $200 annually to use towards an out-of school activity or program that is offered through a small business that wouldn’t normally have scholarship funds available.

The scholarship program is a great addition because it will not only bring much needed offerings to our youth, but it will also help support our locally owned businesses.

We believe that youth need these out of school programs and activities more than ever. Physically, mentally, socially – they need all the positive things that come out of being involved in something that they love to do outside of school.