Elevate Youth CA, California, California City, CA (2026)

Elevate Youth California is focused on youth activism, mentoring and peer support to prevent youth substance disorder, elevating leaders in underserved communities of color and LGBTQ+ youth who seek change for their peers, their community and themselves.

12/19/2025

Congratulations to the 57 community-based and Tribal organizations who are joining the newest cohort of Elevate Youth California funded partners. We look forward to this partnership!

For more information and the full list of partners, please visit https://elevateyouthca.org/news

09/23/2025

We’re celebrating a powerful moment led by one of our incredible Elevate Youth Ca funded partners, Ríos to Rivers, featured in the SF Chronicle: Indigenous youth from tribes across the Klamath Basin paddled 310 miles over a month to reach the Pacific Ocean, reclaiming the river after the historic removal of four hydropower dams.
This journey was more than kayaking. It was ceremony, memory, and movement. Youth from the Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, Klamath, Quartz Valley, and Warm Springs tribes retraced ancestral waters once blocked to salmon and their communities.
Elevate Youth California is proud to support this work through funding and partnership. The real story is in the leadership, resilience, and joy of the youth who made this journey possible.
Go read the full article and witness what happens when young people lead with purpose.
Link in bio: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/klamath-river-kayak-indigenous/

08/18/2025

💫New Funding Opportunity! 💫

We’re thrilled to announce the Elevate Youth California Cohort 7 Standard Track funding opportunity! Grants up to $1 million over three years to support youth civic engagement and prevention of youth substance use disorder.

We are accepting applications from community-based organizations and Tribal organizations throughout California that strive for health equity, focus on youth ages 12-26, and work on culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate prevention, outreach and education projects.

Youth Substance Use Disorder Prevention Program: Cohort 7 Standard Track
‼️ Application Deadline: September 26, 2025, at 1 p.m. PST ‼️

Upcoming RFA Overview Webinars:

- Wednesday, September 3 at 3 p.m. PST
- Thursday, September 11 at 11 a.m. PST

Learn more, register for webinars and apply today on the EYC website — link in our bio. Tag your networks and help us spread the word about this opportunity!

08/15/2025

This week, Associate Vice President of Programs Matt Cervantes represented Sierra Health Foundation at the National Prevention Network Conference (NPN) in Washington D.C.
Matt joined a dynamic panel alongside partners from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and The Cambodian Family, both funded through The Center’s Elevate Youth California (EYC) program, in a session titled “The Future is Now: How Young Leaders are Transforming Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Policy.”
The panel showcased evidence-based community-driven strategies that elevate youth leadership, civic engagement and lived experience—highlighting how young people across California are shaping prevention efforts and policy with urgency and vision.
At Sierra Health Foundation we’re proud to support the transformative work of partners connected with their communities. Investing in young people means investing in a healthier more equitable future, and this session was a powerful reminder of what’s possible when youth voices lead the way.
Let’s celebrate this momentum and the leaders making it happen!

07/30/2025

We are thrilled to share the inspiring work of Elevate Youth California’s partners who connect with their communities in thoughtful, caring, culturally responsive ways. Learn more about a few of our partners (pictured above and described below) who were recently featured in our 2024 Annual Report:

🤝 Connected to Lead: Fifty-five youth showcased an artwork-based campaign raising awareness about the effects of substance use disorder and the intersections between behavioral health and stigma reduction. Youth shared, “It lets people who don’t feel seen or heard know that they are not alone on this journey. No matter what you’ve been through, we see and hear you.”

💫 Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants: Young leaders led a community-based participatory research project collecting qualitative and quantitative data from 75 young people (ages 12-21) leading to the development of a youth advisory group to ensure youth input remains at the forefront.

⤴️ California Youth Empowerment Network: Youth participants led a bus stop campaign designed to connect young people experiencing housing insecurity to essential resources and strengthen protective factors to prevent substance use disorders. The campaign had 30,000 direct interactions with the vibrant, stigma-free posters.

Discover more about our impactful programs and the incredible youth leaders we support in our Annual Report on our website at elevateyouthca.org/news .

07/23/2025

✨The Elevate Youth California 2024 Annual Report is now available! ✨ The report outlines the incredible accomplishments of The Center’s EYC’s funded partners, including educational workshops, trainings, meetings, and mentoring sessions with youth. These activities focused on leadership, behavioral health, substance use disorder prevention, and civic engagement for policy, systems, and environmental change. 🙌🏽

Our funded partners are supporting youth in self-determining and reimagining pathways to healthy, safe schools, and neighborhoods. Dive into our full report to see how we’re elevating youth leadership and advocacy. Visit elevateyouthca.org for more details ➡️ (link in bio). .

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California
California City, CA
92630

Website

http://elevateyouthca.org/

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