PROTECTING ADOLESCENT BRILLIANCE.
Justice-centered programs and systems for youth, families, and the communities that hold them. A US-Squared Research Institute initiative. EIN 92-3221304.
THE SIGNAL. THE FIRE.
WE BUILD SYSTEMS THAT HOLD YOUNG PEOPLE.
What does it mean to protect brilliance? It means building the infrastructure that ensures young people don't have to choose between being themselves and being safe. US-Squared designs justice-centered programs, tools, and systems for youth and the adults who love them.
BASEOPS
The scaffold beneath every mission.
BASEops is US-Squared's free operational infrastructure program. We hand community organizations the same systems we use — because lean nonprofits deserve enterprise-grade infrastructure.
HR, onboarding, compliance, and internal systems built for community-based organizations operating under resource constraints.
Grant tracking, reporting templates, funder relationship management, and compliance workflows for small-to-mid-size nonprofits.
Logic models, data collection tools, and dashboards for communicating your work to funders, boards, and the communities you serve.
ATLAS ACADEMY
Your map. Your future. On your terms.
What You Build
ALTERED .EARTH
Return to ground. Return to yourself.
Five days in nature. Circle practice, creative expression, rest, and ceremony. Altered.Earth is a retreat for young people who need to exhale, reconnect, and be held by something larger than a screen.
5 days / 4 nights in an outdoor setting
Youth 14–22 and adult allies (separate tracks)
Sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.
SPARENT SCIENCE
Monthly research-backed tools for the educators, mentors, caregivers, and coaches who surround young people.
When Your Teenager Won't Talk
Adolescent silence is data, not rejection. This issue breaks down the science of teen withdrawal and gives you three evidence-based approaches for reconnecting without pressure.
Ask one open question today — not “How was school?” but “What's something you're thinking about?” Then wait.
THE DATA BEHIND THE WORK.
Our programs aren't built on assumptions. They're built on peer-reviewed research, longitudinal data, and the lived experiences of the 7,000+ young people whose stories we've had the honor of studying.
Tartt, E. L., Nylund-Gibson, K., et al. (in press). Latent Transition Analysis of adolescent racial discrimination and mental health outcomes. Psychological Methods.
Tartt, E. L. (2023). Unraveling Hopelessness: A latent class analysis of mental health profiles among Black adolescents. UCSB. GPA 3.98.
A justice-centered developmental framework for programs serving Black and Brown youth, derived from dissertation research and community practice.
“These young people weren't hopeless. They were under-resourced, over-surveilled, and under-believed. The data just confirmed what they already knew.”
— Dr. Erica L. Tartt, PhD, Founder