Youth Forward is a catalyst organization that leads social change efforts to improve the health and well-being of low-income children, youth and families at the local and state levels. At the local level, Youth Forward has won major investments in children and youth. In 2022, we led the campaign that created the Sacramento Children's Fund, a $9 million annual funding stream within the city budget that supports services for children and youth in Sacramento's highest poverty neighborhoods. In 2024, we worked closely with Fund's planning commission to design a basic income program for aging out foster youth that will serve to prevent homelessness long-term in our region. In 2024, in partnership with the Sac Fire Department, we helped raise $1.45 million from the state to launch a new training program for emergency medical technicians (EMT's) designed to serve young adults who have experienced foster care, homelessness and incarceration. The first training group for this program will begin in May of this year.
Our Tribal Department provides youth leadership training and supports to native youth in the Del Paso Heights/North Sacramento community and works with tribal nations throughout Northern and Central California in the areas of youth prevention and environmental restoration.
At the state level, we have been the leading voice in developing youth substance abuse prevention grant programs funded by state cannabis tax revenues. Through our work, nonprofits working in high poverty communities throughout the state have received over $323 million to date in youth development grants; nonprofits in Sacramento have received over $40 million from these sources.
Because Youth Forward works at the policy level, our organization is primarily privately funded. We rely on charitable donations. Every donation helps us continue to advocate for long-term investments that improve the health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable kids.
Youth Forward's mission is to create smart solutions to improve the health, education, and well-being of our most vulnerable children and youth in the Sacramento region and in California. We accomplish this through policy advocacy, research, education, and community action.
Our primary goals are to:
- Increase investments in children and youth as well as in prevention
- Promote youth voice and leadership in the policy-making process
- Reduce the criminalization and marginalization of youth
- Improve the school and community environments in which children and young people grow up, with a focus on public health and health equity
Youth Forward relies primarily on private donations to sustain and grow our change-making work. Contributions to Youth Forward will enable us to continue to develop program strategies that serve aging-out foster youth, youth impacted by the criminal justice system and youth who have experienced homelessness. Your donation will help us continue to develop youth and young adult leaders and to sustain our influential advocacy work. Thank you for your support!
Youth Forward aims to improve the life trajectories of vulnerable children and youth and of youth of color through systems change. We are committed to maintaining a culture of diversity and equity in the workplace and within our community. Our strength is in our promise to be inclusive and center the voices and lived experiences of individuals from historically marginalized identities so that we may better advocate for policies and practices that disrupt injustices.
Organization name
Youth Forward
2017
Tax id (EIN)
81-5343876
Mission Category
Youth Development
Operating Budget
$1,000,001-$5 million
Organization Need
Funding: Program
Demographics Served
Youth & Children
BIPOC Leadership
Board Chair
Local Counties Served
Sacramento
Equity Statement
Equity Statement
Address
2411 15th Street Suite ASacramento, CA, US