About Us

Wisconsin State Journal Youth Services, Inc. is a charitable organization serving needy youth throughout Dane County. Youth Services includes the Empty Stocking Club which provides new toys for hundreds of eligible children at Christmas. The charity also works year-round by giving money to youth groups such as summer camps, libraries and neighborhood centers that offer programs for needy youth.

Youth Services is the charitable arm of the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper, and has a volunteer board of directors made up of newspaper-connected and public members. The newspaper promotes the charity's annual fund drive which occurs in December, and provides envelopes in the newspaper through which readers contribute. Last year, new toys were distributed to approximately 4500 families and over 10,000 children at Christmas time (following months of screening).

Youth Services, founded in 1975, is the merger of the Wisconsin State Journal's Empty Stocking Club (founded in 1918) and its companion agency, Children, Inc., which had been serving the community quietly since 1962.