The Center at Sierra Health Foundation (The Center) and the Steering Committee on Reduction of African American Child Deaths (RAACD) are pleased to announce a new funding opportunity through the Black Child Legacy Campaign (BCLC). BCLC is a community-driven movement established by the RAACD Steering Committee to reduce African American child deaths in Sacramento County.
Since its founding in 2015, the campaign has united residents, systems leaders and community-based organizations (CBOs) around a shared goal: ensuring every African American child in Sacramento County grows up safe, healthy and with equal opportunity to thrive.
If your community-based organization is located in Rancho Cordova and serves African American families, you may be eligible to apply to become the eighth Community Incubator Lead site under the BCLC network.
The Project
In 2011, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Disproportionate African American Child Deaths found that African American children in Sacramento County were dying at twice the rate of other groups. In response, the RAACD Steering Committee was formed in 2013 to develop a strategic plan targeting four key areas: perinatal conditions, infant sleep-related deaths, child abuse and neglect homicides, and third-party homicides. This led to the launch of the Black Child Legacy Campaign in 2015, which partnered with seven community-based organizations (Community Incubator Leads) in high-risk neighborhoods to implement community-driven solutions to these issues. The campaign is now expanding to Rancho Cordova, seeking a new community-based organization to lead local efforts and address ongoing disparities in African American child deaths. The awarded organization will coordinate neighborhood-level RAACD efforts by supporting Cultural Brokers and Crisis Intervention Workers in trauma-informed care, disseminating community messaging, convening stakeholders, managing small re-granting programs aligned with BCLC goals under RAACD Steering Committee supervision, and more.
Eligibility Criteria and Funding Details
The Center at Sierra Health Foundation manages BCLC and supports the RAACD Steering Committee in implementing the initiative. This funding opportunity will award one community-based organization up to $100,000 over 6 months (January 1, 2026 – June 30, 2026) to execute efforts that reduce African American child deaths across the four focus areas.
Organizations must:
- Have an office and provide services in Rancho Cordova.
- Be a 501(c)(3) community-based organization or Tribal organization (coalitions or collaboratives are eligible if the lead organization meets this requirement).
- Have a demonstrated history of serving and partnering with African American families and other marginalized communities.
- Employ at least three full-time staff (or equivalent hours) providing direct services to families.
- Demonstrate community-driven approaches to program design and implementation.
- Deeply engage with and reflect communities disproportionately impacted by juvenile and adult systems.
- Reflect the community served through staff and leadership representation.
- Provide wraparound programming and case management for youth and families.
- Demonstrate a record of working with youth continuously and having a capacity for intensive case management of at least 10 youth at a time.
- Have an ability and interest in expanding organizational capacity and practice to serve African American families.
- Not discriminate based on race, color, creed, gender, age, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, or military status.
- Meet financial and administrative requirements.
- Submit all the necessary application materials.
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online by 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) on December 1, 2025. Late applications will not be reviewed. Early submission is strongly encouraged but is not required to respond to this funding opportunity.
Proposers’ Resources
RFA Proposers’ Webinar
Monday, November 17, 2025
Register on Zoom
3:00pm – 4:00pm (Pacific Time)
RFA Review Webinar
Friday, November 21,2025
Register on Zoom
10:00am – 11:00am (Pacific Time)
RFA Office Hours
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Register on Zoom
11:30am – 12:30pm (Pacific Time)
Contact Us
Please email us at raacd@shfcenter.org with any questions, with the subject line: BCLC: 8th Site Application Online Help. We encourage you to reach out early; if you contact us on the day applications are due, we are unlikely to respond and offer the help you need.
Application Resources
Download the required application attachments: