Peter Twichell

As the program officer for mental health, Peter brings extensive experience designing, managing, and evaluating youth and community development programs in the U.S. and abroad. His focus has been on engaging Opportunity Youth using the principles of Positive Youth Development for economic empowerment, civic engagement, education, mental health, peace-building, social justice, leadership development, and community asset building. Most recently he directed the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation’s PropelNext program strengthening U.S. youth-serving organizations with capacity building grants, leadership development, staff training, and improvements in systems to manage and analyze performance data.

Peter played a leading role in the scaling of the YouthBuild program in North America, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, including a collaboration with Jewish stakeholders in Boston and Israel to launch YouthBuild Israel which eventually was incorporated into Israel’s national youth program, YATED.  He has consulted to a wide range of government, foundation, non-profit, and corporate partners in the research and development of youth programs.  Trauma-informed design, mental health and well-being, social-emotional learning, resilience, and inclusion have been central themes in all of this work.

Peter has a master’s degree in international and intercultural management from the School for International Training, and lives north of Boston with his wife Gigi and their two sons.