Press Release: September 22, 2021
Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families has been awarded a two year grant from the Sierra Health Foundation to run a youth leadership and drug abuse prevention program through their community center in West Point, Ca.
Elevate Youth California, a project of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation under contract with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), awarded $5 million to 18 community-based and Tribal organizations throughout California for youth substance use prevention activities. Funded by revenue generated by Proposition 64, which legalized adult non-medical use of cannabis in California, the Elevate Youth California: Supporting Capacity Building for Community Organizations funding opportunity supports a combination of programming and capacity-building activities for emerging grassroots organizations.
Awarded partner projects will provide youth social justice, peer support and mentoring in low-income communities of color, including Tribal communities and LGBTQ communities. Elevate Youth California’s investment will build on partners’ operational, programmatic, financial and/or organizational infrastructure to strengthen their ability to fulfill their mission and have a positive impact on their communities. Partner organizations will work with youth ages 12 to 26 in urban and rural areas of the state. A full list of organizations that received cohort-three awards is posted on the Elevate Youth California website.
“The Elevate Youth California program recognizes the need to invest in building the capacity of organizations that are working directly with young people from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs,” said Chet P. Hewitt, president and CEO of Sierra Health Foundation and The Center. “This program creates stronger organizations, stronger communities and a stronger field of substance use prevention.”
Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families will use this funding to begin a new program for youth 12-26 in Calaveras County. The Lead Up program will recruit, train, empower and employ young people from upcountry Calaveras County to become mentors and staff members at our BMCYF Community Center and civic leaders in our community. This program will establish mentor-based staffing and ongoing programs to disrupt the trend of unemployment and drug use in our low-income rural community and give local youth the skills and support to become part of the solution. Funding from the grant will also support capacity building activities that will help sustain this program into the future.
BMCYF Executive Director Terra Forgette says, “The idea for this program was inspired by a young woman who applied for a position here two years ago. She had come to our center as a kid, and said it was one of the only things that kept her out of trouble. More than anything I wanted to hire her as our new Youth Coordinator, but she had no skills and no experience. It is our dream to be able to train and hire the kids that come up through our center, and watch them become our next generation of leaders. This grant could make that a reality for us. I am certain that this program could have a huge positive impact on the young people we serve and a long-term impact on our community.”
For more information about the Sierra Health Foundation and the Elevate Youth Ca Program visit elevateyouthca.org or www.shfcenter.org.
