Youth Allies was started in 2006 by Earth Care as a way to engage local youth in the process of leadership and change-making. It began as a Leadership Institute offered in partnership with the Santa Fe Mountain Center's Native American Emergence Department and ENLACE for twenty-five youth from the four primary cultural groups of this area who worked together for nine months to learn about the cultural and natural history of the local community, how to promote cultural diversity and bridge cultural divides, and develop sustainability living practices in their own lives and in the community.

Since 2006, the program has grown into a multi-level training, organizing, and civic engagement program. It has reached over 500 youth – training them in leadership, cultural competency, ecological literacy and sustainable practices through service-learning, interactive workshops, youth-led sustainable community development projects, grassroots campaigns, and youth placements on nonprofit boards, grant review committees, and City commissions, task forces, and advisory boards. Each year we have listened to the feedback of the participants, evaluated the program’s outcomes as they relate to the systemic change we feel is so desperately needed at this time, and responded to the needs we see in the lives of the young people we serve and the communities they represent. Each year we have added program elements that address the different stages of development for both the youth and the community on their shared paths toward transformative change. The program's evolution has been guided by the question, “how can we empower youth to rebuild the cultural, economic, and ecological fabric of the community?” The program that has emerged is a model for both 21st century youth leadership development and sustainable community development.