California Invests $4 Million in Community-Based Organizational Capacity Building to Improve the Outcomes of Youth Who are Involved in Punitive Legal Systems

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation and the State of California’s Office of Youth and Community Restoration announced that eight partners will be awarded $500,000 each to engage in Transform Youth Justice’s (TYJ) Community-Based Organization (CBO) Capacity Building Initiative.

These eight funded partners will work to improve the health, social and intergenerational life course outcomes of youth who are involved in punitive legal systems. Their work will span across 26 months and will expand their capacity to meet the social determinants of health needs. Technical assistance is provided by National Center for Youth Law, Public Works Alliance and The Center, and through learning community opportunities. These funded partner organizations will also be encouraged to develop or strengthen diversion programs to advance health and racial equity.

Funded Partners

Learn more about the eight community-based organizations, carefully selected to participate in the CBO Capacity Building Initiative.

    1. Three Sisters Gardens
      Purpose Statement: To create pathways for justice-impacted Black and Latinx youth in Yolo County to access diversion and transformative healing through connection to the earth, each other, and their community to reduce the risk of incarceration and lower recidivism. Serving 100% in Yolo County.
    2. Ujima Adult & Family Services / Spearitwurx
      Purpose Statement: To reduce the cycles of trauma for Black and Latinx justice-involved youth in Siskiyou County through healing-centered and culturally rooted services, strategic partnerships, and improved infrastructure to increase resiliency, and improve overall well-being and life outcomes. Serving 100% in Siskiyou County.
    3. Amelia Ann Adams Whole Life Center
      Purpose Statement: To improve the mental health outcomes of Latinx and Black justice-involved youth in San Joaquin County through trauma-informed case management, legal support, and organizational capacity building to empower youth, foster stronger community bonds, and achieve long-term positive outcomes. Serving 100% in San Joaquin County.
    4. Restore 180
      Purpose Statement: To expand the organizational capacity to serve greater populations of Black and Latinx justice-involved youth in Kings County through technical assistance in data management and evaluation and sustainability practices to improve mental health. Serving 85% in Kings County and 15% in Tulare County.
    5. Kindful Restoration
      Purpose Statement: To build organizational capacity to provide comprehensive support services for Latinx justice-involved youth and their families through healing and rehabilitative practices, and reentry programs to achieve stability, self-sufficiency, and successful reintegration. Serving 80% in Riverside County and 20% in San Bernardino County.
    6. Asian Pacific Islander Reentry through Support Inclusion & Empowerment
      Purpose Statement: To support high-risk Asian and Pacific Islander youth in San Bernardino County through prevention and diversion activities to cultivate resilience, clear sense of identity and promote healing. Serving 100% in San Bernardino County.
    7. Operation New Hope
      Purpose Statement: To strengthen Latinx and Black youth reentry in San Bernardino County through career development, vocational opportunities, and mental health support to prevent substance use and overcome barriers to successful reentry. Serving 20% in Riverside County and 80% in San Bernardino County.
    8. Bright Futures for Youth
      Purpose Statement: To enhance program capacity to expand services for Black, Latinx, and mixed-race justice-involved youth in Nevada County through trauma-informed prevention education and case management to increase resiliency, positive youth development and mental health outcomes. Serving 100% in Nevada County.

More About the Project

The Transform Youth Justice CBO Capacity Building Initiative will support and provide a statewide network of organizations working on implementing services, diversion programs and other supports for youth who are justice involved that are healing-based, trauma-informed, gender responsive, and culturally and linguistically appropriate. The initiative will offer technical assistance by Public Works Alliance and National Center for Youth Law, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and at least three learning community convenings.

Over a period of approximately 26 months, the organizations above will be working to expand services and supports, inclusive of diversion programs for youth who are justice involved ages 12 to 26 in four regions in California. The organizations above reflect need in the following regions:

  • Northern California: Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Siskiyou, Shasta, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba Counties
  • Sierra Nevada: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Inyo, Lassen, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sierra and Tuolumne Counties
  • Inland Empire (I.E.) / Imperial Valley: Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
  • San Joaquin Valley: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare Counties

Please email questions to tyj@shfcenter.org with the subject line: “OYCR CBO CBI Question.”