Standard Track Cohort 4

November 2022 – November 2025

Awarded Program Highlights

Pictured: Several individuals gather outside around a poster that says, 'The Problem Contains the Solution.' The word 'problem' is crossed out and says 'youth' slightly above it.  An individual in a striped sweater is in front of the poster holding a microphone.

Young Women’s Freedom Center

Through their Sisters and Siblings on the Rise program, Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC) places program graduates in community organizing and youth research opportunities to promote economic self-sufficiency and advocacy work changing the political landscape for youth incarceration. In February 2023, YWFC community organizers informed language and advocacy on Assembly Bill 1186 and successfully moved it out of the Assembly. YWFC continues to educate, train and mobilize new participants in the legislative process to further support and uplift sisters and siblings impacted by incarceration.

Pictured: A large group of participants pose together. Four young people are kneeling in front of others. Most are wearing black hoodies. They pose outside in front of tents with the State Capitol, a large white building, behind them in the distance.

Central Valley Empowerment Alliance (CVEA)

Through Central Valley Empowerment Alliance’s (CVEA) program, LUPEs Promise, youth participants are changing the landscape for farm working communities. In July 2023, CVEA youth advocated for recreational green spaces and saw that work come to fruition in October 2023. Empty lots in the Central Valley will become greenhouse nurseries to address the region’s food desert crisis and bring food sovereignty to farmworker communities.

Pictured: A young participant is holding a microphone and wearing a black shirt and colorful cardigan. The photo is captured inside of a room and four individuals can be seen behind the participant

Queer Humboldt

partnered with the Wiyot Tribe to celebrate and affirm queer youth within their tribe. A Queer Humboldt youth created art celebrating Two-Spirit people of the Wiyot Tribe, which will be used for upcoming fundraising cultural revitalization efforts.

Learn how our 61 Standard Track Cohort 4 partners are leading change with youth in communities through prevention, outreach and education.

‘ataaxum Pomkwaan

San Diego County
$958,835

To improve health outcomes of Native American youth in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties through advocacy programs and activities, Indigenous Clubs, mentorship and youth social justice workshops to address substance use prevention among youth.

Alcohol Justice

Marin County
$999,056

To promote the leadership of Latinx youth of the Canal district of San Rafael and Marin County by understanding Indigenous and Latinx cultural practices, community organizing and hands-on environmental projects to prevent substance use.

Alliance for Community Transformations

Mariposa County
$655,367

To empower youth in Mariposa County through creative arts, goal setting, mentorship and youth activism to holistically approach policy change and reduce substance use.

Antelope Valley Partners for Health

Los Angeles County
$992,292

To build the capacity of system-involved Latinx and Black youth in Los Angeles County through youth activism, mentoring and peer-to-peer services to support healthy decision-making skills and reduce substance use.

Arts for Healing and Justice Network

Los Angeles County
$947,789

To increase the leadership skills of at-promise, system-impacted Black and Latinx youth in Los Angeles County through healing-informed arts education, leadership development, peer mentorship and youth-led advocacy to empower youth to reclaim their narratives and dismantle oppressive systems.

Asian Refugees United

Alameda County
$957,990

To improve life outcomes for LGBTQIA+ Asian-American and Pacific Islander youth in Alameda County through creative arts-based mentoring, the cultivation of intergenerational wisdom and community healing to increase youth resiliency and impact local school policy.

California Health Collaborative

Tulare County
$1,000,000

To improve educational outcomes of Latinx, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander and LGBT+ youth in Tulare County through culturally rooted and healing-centered social support resources and restorative justice approaches to reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions related to youth substance use.

California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project

Butte County, Sierra County, Yuba County, Nevada County
$994,319

To improve the behavioral health outcomes of Native American youth in Yuba, Butte and Sierra counties through cultural education, mentoring, peer counseling and leadership development to improve social determinants of health and to prevent substance use.

California Indian Manpower Consortium

Fresno County, San Diego County, Shasta County
$1,000,000

To improve the leadership skills and empower Native American youth in California through peer-led support groups, traditional practices and leadership programs to combat generational trauma and reduce substance use in Tribal communities.

California Youth Connection

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To strengthen the civic engagement and decision-making skills to increase youth power of system-impacted youth in California through regional boot camps, summer leadership and policy conferences, and peer-led community organizing to shift harmful policies that affect system-involved youth.

Central Valley Empowerment

Kern County, Tulare County
$892,598

To empower BIPOC youth in Tulare and Kern counties through experiences that embrace local history, leadership summits, fellowships, mental health supports and photography to discover the power within their stories and reduce substance use.

Changeist

San Joaquin County
$1,000,000

To improve the leadership and civic engagement skills of youth in San Joaquin County through peer-led team-based experiences, community organizing, mentorship and storytelling to advance equity and reduce substance use.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To strengthen the agency and self-determination of youth of color in Los Angeles County by creating a youth-led collective that impacts health, policy change and access to opportunities for young people through training and mentorship to address substance use and social justice issues.

Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy and Services

Santa Clara County
$997,339.20

To support Latinx youth in rural Santa Clara County to become agents of change through youth-led coalitions, mentoring, coaching and leadership development to decrease disproportionate suspension rates and bring awareness to youth substance use disorder.

Community Health Councils

Los Angeles County
$854,983

To increase social equity and well-being of diverse youth in Los Angeles, Fresno, San Bernardino, San Diego and San Francisco counties by building community capacity for civic engagement to address youth-identified community needs and reduce substance use.

Community Health for Asian Americans

Alameda County, Contra Costa County
$996,400

To build the leadership capacity of Asian, Latinx and Black youth in Alameda and Contra Costa counties through youth policy advocacy, youth-led town halls and community activism to strengthen access to mental health and substance use resources and services.

Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians

Mendocino County
$998,705

To strengthen the emotional, mental and spiritual wellness of youth and young adult Tribal members in Mendocino County through youth-led engagement, internships and leadership opportunities rooted in the cultural teachings of Tribal values and practices to reduce substance use.

Education, Training, and Research Associates

Alameda County
$1,000,000

To strengthen the leadership and advocacy skills of youth of color in Oakland through a trauma-informed, youth-centered health design project that identifies policy, systems and environmental change solutions to address youth substance use in their communities.

Family Assistance Program

San Bernadino County
$1,000,000

To empower African American and Latinx youth in San Bernardino County through participation in Youth Advisory Boards, workshops and youth-led activism for policy, systems and environmental change to reduce substance use.

FosterHope Sacramento

Sacramento County, Yolo County
$872,179

To promote healing of foster youth in Sacramento, Yolo and Yuba counties through innovating models of trauma-informed integrated care, relationship building, community collaboration and centering youth voices to address trauma and substance use.

Freedom 4 Youth

Santa Barbara County
$880,903

To improve the civic engagement and leadership skills of system-impacted Black and Latinx youth in Santa Barbara County through a peer-led credible messenger mentorship and advocacy program to advocate for alternatives to incarceration for substance-related offenses in the juvenile and adult legal system.

Fresh Lifelines for Youth, Inc.

Alameda County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County
$1,000,000

To strengthen the civic engagement skills of youth in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties through youth-led service-learning projects, mentorship and peer support to become community change agents and reduce substance use disorder.

Fresno Metro Black Chamber Foundation

Fresno County, Madera County, San Joaquin County
$996,720

To improve educational and life outcomes of systems-impacted young adults in Fresno, Madera and San Joaquin counties through goal and skills development, vocational training and career development to reduce substance use.

Gateway Mountain Center Inc.

Nevada County, Placer County
$903,000

To promote healing and increase the leadership skills of youth in rural Placer and El Dorado counties through nature-based, harm reduction retreats and peer leadership programs to create healthy alternatives and reduce substance use.

Greater Sacramento Urban League

Sacramento County
$994,885

To increase civic engagement outcomes and promote the wellness of Black youth in Sacramento County through youth-led participatory action research projects to empower youth to research and formulate solutions to issues that impact them and their communities.

Horn of Africa Community in North America

San Diego County
$999,970

To improve leadership and civic engagement skills of refugee youth in San Diego County through community engagement, assessment and education to develop cultural best practices of prevention programming to reduce and prevent substance use.

Humboldt State University Sponsored Programs Foundation

Del Norte County, Humboldt County
$1,000,000

To empower Native American youth in Humboldt and Del Norte counties through youth camps, cultural practices, traditional ecological knowledge and food sovereignty to reduce health disparities and reduce substance use.

Improve Your Tomorrow

Sacramento County
$991,081

To improve the educational and health outcomes of young men of color attending Sacramento community colleges by providing mentorship, leadership development and culturally responsive wrap-around support in preparation for policy internships in Sacramento.

Kings Partnership for Prevention, Inc.

Kings County
$579,370

To increase the resiliency of youth in Kings County through a youth-led coalition, civic engagement, early intervention and recovery services to reduce youth substance use.

Koreatown Youth and Community Center, Inc.

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To strengthen leadership and advocacy skills of Asian, Black and Latinx youth in Los Angeles County through youth-led advocacy efforts to minimize exposure to tobacco and cannabis product waste at local parks and improve community health outcomes.

Latino Center for Prevention & Action in Health & Welfare

Orange County
$1,000,000

To increase advocacy skills and empower Latinx youth in Orange County through peer mentoring, creative arts, leadership development, and strengthened resource and referral connections to reduce harm and youth substance use disorder.

Latino Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services

Tulare County
$899,898

To improve the self-esteem and interconnectedness of Latinx youth in Tulare County through programming that equips youth with healthy coping skills, knowledge and confidence to build protective factors and improve life outcomes.

Legacy Alliance Outreach

Stanislaus County
$998,709

To empower Asian, Black, Latinx and Pacific Islander youth in Stanislaus County through peer-to-peer support and civic engagement opportunities to disrupt familial cycles of generational substance abuse and reduce youth substance use and overdose deaths.

Legacy LA Youth Development Corporation

Los Angeles County
$903,474

To increase leadership skills of Latinx youth in underserved Boyle Heights and East LA neighborhoods through mentoring and a youth-led campaign to address the over-saturation of cannabis billboard advertising and increase community understanding of youth substance use disorder.

Level Up NorCal

Butte County, Glenn County, Shasta County, Tehama County
$1,000,000

To improve health and social outcomes of Latinx and Southeast Asian youth in Shasta, Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties through activism, leadership development and mentorship to heal intergenerational trauma and reduce substance use.

LGBTQ+ Collaborative

Stanislaus County, Tuolumne County
$999,917

To increase civic engagement skills and amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties through advocacy, mentorship, community planning and mobilization to achieve inclusion and equity in local policies and improve health outcomes.

Museum of Children’s Art

Alameda County
$999,921

To empower Latinx and Black youth in Alameda County through transformational youth-led school and community-based interventions, youth activism and mentorship to reduce absenteeism and youth substance use disorder.

Northern California Indian Development Council, Inc.

Del Norte County, Humboldt County
$1,000,000

To promote healing among middle and high school Native American students in Humboldt County through culturally rooted lessons, social-emotional learning and youth advocacy to prevent substance use.

Pinoleville Pomo Nation

Lake County, Mendocino County
$1,000,000

To improve the behavioral health and educational outcomes of Native youth in Mendocino and Lake counties through culturally rooted practices, leadership development, prevention education and policy advocacy training to promote educational equity and reduce substance use.

Pomona Pride Center Inc.

Los Angeles County, San Bernadino County
$1,000,000

To empower 2S/LGBTQ+ youth in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties through art, mentorship and youth-led activism leading to policy change and strengthened community-based efforts to reduce substance use.

Public Health Institute

Sacramento County
$1,000,000

To increase leadership skills of Black youth in Sacramento County through youth-led advocacy campaigns, peer-to-peer learning, leadership opportunities, mentorship and referral pathways to prevent substance use disorder.

Queer Humboldt

Del Norte County, Humboldt County
$999,051

To improve the civic engagement skills to empower and support 2S/LGBTQIA+ and QTBIPOC youth in Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino, Siskiyou and Trinity counties and local Tribal lands through school-level advocacy, mentorship, peer-to-peer support and queer-informed direct services to treat and prevent youth substance use disorder.

Realistic Education in Action Coalition to Foster Health (REACH LA)

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To improve the leadership skills to empower 2S/LGBTQ+ students of color in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties through substance use prevention campaigns, promotion of healthy relationships and prevention education using multimedia production to improve school climates and reform exclusionary policies.

Rose Family Creative Empowerment Center

Sacramento County
$999,118

To improve educational and health outcomes of African American students in South Sacramento through wraparound support, expanded academic services and a youth-driven substance use awareness campaign to inform policymakers on youth substance use issues.

Sacred Generations

Madera County, Sacramento County, San Joaquin County, Solano County, Sonoma County
$1,000,000

To promote healing of system-impacted Tribal youth and young adults in Madera, San Joaquin, Solano, Sonoma and Sacramento counties by creating art, film and new media to increase awareness of mass incarceration and the effects of substance use.

Social Advocates for Youth San Diego, Inc.

San Diego County
$1,000,000

To improve behavioral health outcomes for system-impacted, homeless youth and young adults of color in San Diego County through referral to substance use treatment, mentoring, counseling and leadership development to advocate for policies that address the criminalization of youth substance use.

Stockton Service Corps

San Joaquin County
$996,255

To increase the civic engagement outcomes of Latinx, Asian and Black youth in San Joaquin County through mentorship, wraparound services, a youth-led council and community-based projects to reduce substance use.

The Cambodian Family

Orange County
$1,000,000

To empower Vietnamese, Cambodian and Latinx youth in Orange County through mentorship, peer-led activism training and implementation of a culturally and linguistically tailored curriculum to prevent substance use.

The Church of the Nazarene, Inc. (Liberty Towers)

Sacramento County
$602,280

To build leadership skills of youth in Sacramento County through advocacy training to make healthy decisions to create solutions in their own lives and address systemic barriers in their community.

The Race and Gender Equity Project

Sacramento County
$999,961

To promote healing and improve health outcomes for Black youth in Sacramento County through performing arts, motivational workshops, life coaching and mentorship to reduce and prevent substance use.

The Sacramento LGBT Community Center

Sacramento County
$1,000,000

To promote healing and life outcomes for BIQTPOC youth in Sacramento County through an educational hub that will foster peer-to-peer support, center youth voice and increase access to culturally responsive mental health to reduce substance use.

The Wall-Las Memorias

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To support the leadership development of Latinx and LGBTQ+ youth and young adults in Los Angeles through campaign development, mentorship and building public will for substance use disorder prevention policy change.

TrueCare

Riverside County, San Luis Obispo County
$998,168

To empower Latinx/Hispanic youth in San Diego and Riverside counties through leadership development and peer-to-peer education to improve behavioral health outcomes and substance use awareness.

Underground GRIT

Orange County
$1,000,000

To improve the health and social outcomes of youth credible messengers in Orange County through education, advocacy and narrative change to reduce substance use.

United Way of Santa Cruz County

Santa Cruz County
$834,075

To promote the well-being of Latinx youth in Santa Cruz County through connection to resources, positive peer-to-peer relationships, decision-making and leadership opportunities to reduce substance misuse.

Urban Peace Movement

Alameda County
$1,000,000

To increase the health and social outcomes of Black and Latinx youth in Alameda County through leadership development, civic engagement and youth-led community organizing to transform the youth justice system and increase awareness of positive coping mechanisms to prevent substance use disorder.

YES Nature to Neighborhoods

Contra Costa County
$826,436

To promote healing and strengthen the leadership and civic engagement skills among Richmond’s Black and Latinx male and male-identifying youth and young adults to cultivate change-makers through empowerment activities, advocacy groups and family camps to strengthen communities and reduce substance use.

Young Invincibles

Los Angeles County, Riverside County, Sacramento County, San Bernadino County
$1,000,000

To strengthen civic engagement outcomes of youth across California through community organizing, advocacy, narrative change, financial literacy and trauma-informed care to advance health equity and economic security.

Young Women’s Freedom Center

Alameda County, Contra Costa County, San Francisco County
$1,000,000

To promote healing and improve health outcomes by developing a collaborative of BIPOC formerly incarcerated, systems-impacted girls, women and trans people of all genders in Alameda and San Francisco counties through family unity and intergenerational healing practices to advance transformative justice processes and community-based alternatives to incarceration.

Youth Justice Coalition

Los Angeles County
$1,000,000

To empower Black and Latinx youth leaders in South Los Angeles communities of South Central, Watts and Compton through Street C.R.E.D. (Community Resources, Education, and Distribution) to address the overwhelming health and safety impacts of substance use disorder.

Youth Leadership Institute

Merced County
$1,000,000

To promote transformational healing of systems-impacted youth in Merced County through creative arts and culturally rooted enrichment activities that foster positive youth leadership development to achieve narrative change and reduce substance use.