Standard Track Cohort 3
November 2021 – November 2024
Awarded Program Highlights
Hmong Innovating Politics (HIP)
uplifts and empowers a cohort of youth and young adults to be social change makers and conversation starters in the Hmong and Southeast Asian American community and in their own lives. HIP and participating youth celebrated two successful Summer Organizing Institutes (SOIs) in 2022. The two SOIs provided a powerful and moving space for discussions and activities focused on mental health, healing, advocacy, leadership and workforce exploration.
California Youth Empowerment Network (CAYEN)
addresses substance use prevention though social change campaigns and multimedia advocacy art in Sacramento and Los Angeles counties. In 2023, CAYEN launched the Los Angeles cohort of I AM Collaborative with the Los Angeles LGBT Center and hosted the Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Day at the State Capitol. The event was able to bring together 109 TAY and adult allies from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Marin, Humboldt, Trinity, Sonoma, Alameda and San Bernardino Counties.
Redwood Community Services
policy, systems and environmental change efforts focus on reducing substance use, poverty and violence. Through the Elevate Youth program, in partnership with Upper Lake School District, Native youth and community members were activated to design and install a beautiful mural at Upper Lake Middle School in 2023. The mural highlights landmark unique to Lake County, allows current and future youth and adults to engage with the mural through thoughtful conversation and honors late community leader Thomas Brown.
Learn how our 61 Standard Track Cohort 3 partners are leading change with youth in communities through prevention, outreach and education.
Alliance for Community Empowerment
Los Angeles County
$999,477.15
To strengthen the leadership and advocacy skills of Black and Latinx youth in Los Angeles through social justice youth development, mentoring and a Policy Council to address trauma and substance use.
America On Track
Orange County
$1,000,000
To empower low-income youth and young adults in Orange County through individual healing and leadership development opportunities to become agents of policy-driven change.
Anti-Recidivism Coalition
Sacramento County, Yolo County
$448,909.05
To empower system-impacted youth in Sacramento and Yolo counties through leadership development, mental health support, and policy advocacy to improve health and life outcomes for young people returning home.
Asian Pacific Self-Development and Residential Association
San Joaquin County
$987,870.96
To build capacity of youth leaders in San Joaquin County through youth-led programming and mentoring to encourage healthy lifestyles and reduce substance use among youth.
Asian Youth Center
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To develop the leadership and advocacy skills of low-income immigrant youth in Los Angeles County through the Youth and Parent Leadership Development program to decrease substance use and improve academic outcomes.
Auburn Hip Hop Congress
Nevada County, Sacramento County, Placer County, El Dorado County
$323,160
To promote healing, leadership and advocacy skills of youth in Placer County to advance policy change in education, mental health, substance abuse prevention and juvenile justice.
Bay Area Community Health
Alameda County, Santa Clara County
$1,000,000
To engage and educate Black, Asian and Latinx youth in Alameda and Santa Clara counties through the Enabling Youth to Build Healthier Futures program to enact positive policy and systems change.
Bay Area Community Resources
Marin County
$460,000
To increase the advocacy skills of LGBTQ2S+, Latinx and African American youth in Alameda County and Marin County through youth-led substance use prevention and to address substance use prevention among youth.
Black Youth Leadership Project
Sacramento County
$1,000,000
To strengthen leadership and advocacy skills of Black youth in Sacramento through an education and leadership program to equip them to take a leading and active role in their success.
Boyle Heights Beat
Alameda County, Fresno County, San Bernardino County, Merced County, Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To employ youth activism, civic engagement and peer-led support for system-impacted Latinx and LGBTQ2S+ youth to address systemic and acute environmental trauma that impacts youth substance use in Los Angeles County.
Bridge Builders Foundation
Los Angeles County
$450,000
To improve health and social outcomes by developing youth ambassadors in Los Angeles County through service, employment, resources and training to enhance leadership skills and build community.
Bright Futures for Youth
Nevada County
$937,371.60
To increase youth engagement in Western Nevada County through peer support, mentorship, basic needs and health services to reduce generational substance use, homelessness and incarceration.
California School-Based Health Alliance
Contra Costa County, Fresno County, San Bernardino County, Madera County
$1,000,000
To build the power of low-income youth activists of color in Fresno, Madera, Contra Costa and San Bernardino counties through youth-focused trainings, peer collaboration and policy change to improve the health and education outcomes of youth.
California Youth Empowerment Network
Sacramento County, Los Angeles County
$998,230.30
To employ youth activism around substance use prevention though social change campaigns and multimedia advocacy art to change system discrimination against communities directly impacted by the War on Drugs in Sacramento and Los Angeles counties.
Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants
Alameda County
$601,786.50
To increase leadership development of Southeast Asian youth in Alameda County through youth activism, leadership development, mentorship and mental health services that connect intersectional issues of intergenerational trauma, poverty, racism, incarceration, deportation and substance use.
Center for Health Justice
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To prevent youth substance use by increasing systems-impacted youths’ capacity to advocate for policy, systems and environmental change around the criminal justice system and recidivism through a mentorship and peer-led approach.
City Ministry Network
Stanislaus County
$533,400
To develop emerging Latinx leaders in Stanislaus County through youth-led collective action efforts, building youth power and skills to connect networks for policy change.
Eden Youth and Family Center
Alameda County
$998,180
To build youth activism among Latinx youth in Alameda County through Familia Adelante, a behavioral intervention curriculum designed to advocate for the implementation of culturally specific, evidence-based substance use disorder prevention strategies in the California Curriculum Frameworks.
EmpowHer Institute
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To support BIPOC girls in becoming agents of change in their schools and communities through mentoring, social-emotional learning, leadership classes, youth-led advocacy campaigns, family engagement and utilizing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) to raise awareness of substance use disorder impact on marginalized communities in Los Angeles County.
Girls Club of Los Angeles
Los Angeles County
$946,981
To strengthen youth advocates’ capacity to address systemic inequities of the social services and public health systems by reshaping policies that contribute to the risk of substance use in South Los Angeles.
Helpline Youth Counseling, Inc.
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To empower BIPOC youth experiencing or at risk of probation, incarceration and substance use through peer support, community organizing, advocacy, leadership training and communications to create environmental change in Long Beach.
Hmong Innovating Politics
Fresno County, Sacramento County
$1,000,000
To create a space of healing and growth for Hmong and Southeast Asian youth to explore their identity, acknowledge harm, develop tools for harnessing their collective leadership and build solidarity with other communities through youth-centered healing, wellness and leadership development programs in Sacramento and Fresno counties.
Institute for Public Strategies
San Diego County
$1,000,000
To establish a coalition of immigrant youth disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs to examine the physical, social, political and economic contexts and injustices that influence substance use behavior and decision making through youth-led participatory action research and leadership and advocacy training, grounded in social justice youth development and healing-centered and trauma-informed mentoring in San Bernardino County.
International Rescue Committee
Sacramento County
$1,000,000
To build capacity of immigrant and refugee youth in Sacramento County through harm reduction and cultural humility and to develop safe places to reduce youth substance use and promote healthy life choices.
Latino Coalition for Healthy California
Sacramento County
$999,640
To educate and build power among Latinx youth through an innovative trauma-informed upstream primary and secondary substance use prevention program that will fuel youth activism through interactive and cross-cultural civic engagement, peer-led substance awareness campaigns, leadership development and nurturing collective efficacy in Sacramento.
LOUD for Tomorrow
Tulare County, Kern County
$1,000,000
To address substance use disorder and mental health among high school students through youth-led campaigns at the city and school district level to destigmatize substance use disorder and mental health by increasing resources for community healing through education, youth leadership development and empowerment in Delano.
Madera Coalition for Community Justice
Madera County
$577,118
To build leadership and advocacy skills of underserved youth in Madera County through a youth leadership program to advance civic engagement and community action.
McKinleyville Community Collaborative
Humboldt County
$469,819.24
To strengthen the leadership skills of youth of color in Humboldt County through leadership training, coaching and substance use disorder prevention to increase health and life outcomes for youth.
Mental Health California
Sacramento County
$999,994
To reduce disparities, promote healing and improve mental wellness among boys and men of color through multimedia education on substance use prevention, engaging a cohort of young males of color to express hardships and recovery through digital storytelling and provide multimedia resources to Sacramento County school systems on trauma along with policy recommendations.
Mi Familia Vota Education Fund
Stanislaus County, Fresno County
$884,599.20
To improve the social and emotional outcomes of Latinx and youth of color through a peer mentorship program to improve conditions within their communities and create a healthier population in Stanislaus and Fresno counties.
National Foster Youth Institute
Sacramento County, Alameda County, San Mateo County, Contra Costa County, San Francisco County, Fresno County, San Diego County, San Bernardino County, Napa County, Monterey County, Merced County, Los Angeles County, Kings County, Kern County, Madera County
$1,000,000
To promote healing by mobilizing current and former foster youth to partner with decision makers to design policy, programs and reform systems that criminalize substance use disorder by using a healing-centered leadership development model, youth activism, mentorship and peer-to-peer coaching throughout California.
Native Alliance of the Sierra Nevada Foothills
Nevada County, Sacramento County, Placer County, El Dorado County
$360,186
To improve health outcomes for Indigenous youth by increasing awareness of substance use prevention, strengthen youth protective factors and reduce barriers to addressing root causes of substance use through youth activism, mentorship and peer education in the Sierra Nevada Foothills.
Native Dads Network
Sacramento County, Yolo County, Glenn County, Sonoma County, Lake County, Humboldt County
$999,950
To improve health, reduce and ultimately eliminate the cycle of alcoholism and addiction among Native youth and families through comprehensive and culturally rooted services and healing practices, combined with political and historical education and empowerment in Sacramento and nearby counties.
New Birth Community Development
San Joaquin County
$1,000,000
To improve the health and social outcomes of youth by cultivating a desire for change in Stockton communities impacted by the War on Drugs through youth activism, mentorship and peer-led support to address the challenges that lead to risks of substance use.
Paving Great Futures
San Diego County
$647,855
To strengthen youth social outcomes of young leaders of color by educating on the history and lasting effects of the War on Drug in their communities and an understanding of culturally relevant substance use prevention strategies, and training to organize and mobilize their communities to advocate for resources and policies that holistically address the root causes and corruptive effects of substance use/abuse in San Diego County.
Project Q
Los Angeles County
$775,836
To improve health and social outcomes of Black and Brown queer youths that are experiencing houselessness due to the War on Drugs through a peer-led youth support program that provides work skills development, free trauma-informed therapy, knowledge making on the impact of substance use and promoting healthy alternatives to substance use in Los Angeles County.
Redwood Community Services
Lake County
$697,462.82
To address policy, systems and environmental change focusing on substance use, poverty and violence by empowering Native American, Latinx and youth with disabilities through a healing-centered youth development program and engaging with elected and public officials regarding restorative justice practices, cultural representation and public advocacy in Lake County.
Richstone Family Center
Los Angeles County
$799,834.59
To improve youth mental health, increasing school engagement, helping youth build social-emotional skills to help navigate stressors that lead to substance use, offering educational workshops in the community to improve mental health literacy and reduce stigma, and creating a community council that works to identify local substance use issues and generates potential solutions in Los Angeles County.
Roots Community Health Center
Alameda County
$1,000,000
To improve youth well-being and address the root causes of youth substance use through peer support and education, reduction strategies and policy change advocacy with youth of color in East Oakland.
Rural Innovations in Social Economics, Inc.
Yolo County
$894,553.44
To improve the health and well-being of young people by increasing protective factors for youth in Yolo County through a culturally responsive program to prevent and treat substance use and improve mental health outcomes.
San Fernando Valley Partnership
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To improve youth health and social outcomes through youth activism by developing a coalition and school-based chapters to address policy, systems and environmental change to prevent youth substance use.
Sanctuary of Hope
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To increase BIPOC youth’s voices and social capital through youth empowerment and leadership, policy and advocacy skills development in Los Angeles County.
Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People
Santa Barbara County
$223,516.80
To improve health and social outcomes by preventing youth cannabis misuse through training and supporting peer promotoras, or messengers, to educate on the effects of cannabis in Santa Barbara County.
Sisters Warriors Freedom Coalition
Alameda County, Santa Clara County, San Francisco County, Fresno County, San Diego County, Los Angeles County, Kern County
$1,000,000
To create a cadre of youth and young adults across California through programming and policy change to advance policy goals for the decarceration and decriminalization of and family reunification of formerly incarcerated, systems-involved cis- and transgender women, transgender men and gender expansive people.
Somali Family Service of San Diego
San Diego County
$999,129.60
To increase awareness about opioid abuse and prevention among refugee and immigrant youth in San Diego County through a youth-led LION Opioid Taskforce to increase youth and community access to Narcan and increase availability of Narcan at community sites frequented by youth.
Stanislaus County Youth Empowerment Program
Stanislaus County
$999,585.75
To increase the capacity of African American student advocates as changemakers through a youth empowerment program that supports youth with advocacy, systems change efforts and overall wellness support in Stanislaus County.
The AMAAD Institute
Los Angeles County
$1,000,000
To strengthen Black and Brown LGBTQ+ youths’ capacity to contribute to local and national efforts to reduce substance use disorder, other health disparities and social injustices through a strengths-based fellowship program focused on providing leadership training, mentoring support and motivational interviewing in Los Angeles County.
The Freedom Bound Center
Sacramento County, Yolo County
$833,400
To amplify the narratives of disproportionately underrepresented youth in Sacramento and Yolo counties through hands-on arts and media training, and the creation of community wellness and advocacy campaigns to promote narrative and policy change.
The Gathering for Justice
San Joaquin County, Ventura County
$1,000,000
To build a movement of youth leaders in San Joaquin and Ventura counties through culturally rooted and healing-centered activism and leadership development, mentorship and peer support, and intergenerational convenings to promote healthy and safe communities.
TLC Child and Family Services
Sonoma County
$1,000,000
To empower foster, LGBTQ2S+, BIPOC, homeless and transition-age youth in Sonoma County through peer-to-peer mentoring, skill development, trauma-informed and culturally sensitive clinical services and advocacy training to increase policy change and address conditions that contribute to substance use.
Touro University California
Solano County
$614,278
To improve the social and emotional outcomes of youth and decrease the use of and risk of use of substances through expanding a mentorship program to include a peer youth-developed and led culturally responsive substance use disorder curriculum in Solano County.
Trans & Queer Youth Collective
Sacramento County, Placer County, Amador County, Yolo County, El Dorado County, Marin County, San Bernardino County, Lake County
$999,493
To improve the health and well-being outcomes of LBGTQ2S+ and QTBIPOC youth and reduce mental health crises and rates of substance use and abuse by promoting healthy lifestyles, good decision making, advocacy and community building with peers in Sacramento.
Transitional Youth Mobilizing for Change (TYM4Change)
Kern County
$999,932
To empower youth of color to become agents of change through participatory action research, mentoring and documentary filmmaking to advocate for infrastructure and systems change at the city and county level of Bakersfield.
Valley Health Associates
Monterey County, San Benito County
$1,000,000
To advance the leadership skills of youth in Monterey County through engaging and activating a youth coalition to advocate for policy, systems and environmental change aligned with harm reduction.
Vista Community Clinic, North San Diego County NAACP Youth Council and North Coastal Prevention Coalition
San Diego County
$864,996
To improve the health and social outcomes of African American and Hispanic students by addressing the disproportionate felony juvenile arrest rates by building leadership and advocacy skills among Youth Council members to advocate for youth prevention and utilize peer support and policy change to prevent youth vaping in San Diego County.
Waymakers
Orange County
$1,000,000
To address the racial and socio-economic factors that lead to high rates of suspensions and juvenile arrests through a peer-led support program, leadership development and systems change campaign led by system-involved youth in Orange County.
Westminster Free Clinic
Ventura County
$1,000,000
To increase protective factors among immigrant, first-generation Latinx youth in Ventura County through a youth-led social justice advocacy and workforce development pipeline program that provides trauma-informed, culturally relevant trainings, mentoring, peer support, service learning and activities to promote healing and instill cultural pride.
YMCA of San Diego County
San Diego County
$1,000,000
To engage BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ youth through skills building, identity development and holistic services to empower youth to promote equity-focused policy and systems change.
Youth Alliance
San Benito County, Santa Clara County
$1,000,000
To reduce the criminalization of youth of color and build youth-centered restorative school and community culture through healing, mentorship and social justice leadership development in at-promise and high-promise youth of color in San Benito and South Santa Clara counties.
Youth Transforming Justice
Marin County
$954,480
To promote advocacy skills in Latinx youth to decrease disproportionate suspension rates through restorative and trauma-informed practices and harm-reduction diversion for substance use violations within the city of San Rafael schools and county probation.
Youth Will
San Diego County
$495,524.15
To increase youth voice in decision making and criminal justice reform in San Diego County through increasing youth of color representation and a youth justice campaign to create a Transitional Age Youth Unit, trauma-informed justice system and age-appropriate supervision.