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 We have work to do - Making an Impact
By Winston Ashby - Executive Director

The recent events in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton are reminders of why we need to continue to cultivate a safe and caring environment for all of our children. 

We are one of the few organizations that provides youth the opportunity to feel empowered, by providing them with youth led opportunities that are supported by caring adults, at their schools and in their community. What makes us unique, is that we provide services on weekends, after 5pm on weekdays, and during the summer.

During the summer, we supported 40+ students at James Logan High School with socio-emotional support activities. We met 4 time for 1.5 hours a session over a four week time period. We also provided a 1 hour session to 60 additional youth in a business training program in San Jose and followed up with participating in a one week, all day business training program at UC Berkeley.

When the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic festival took place, communities all over the Bay Area were chipping in to support and our youth did too. We had over 100 youth write letters of support to 500 k-12 school students and teamed up with Baskin Robins to serve each 1 of them with 1 scoop of ice cream each. That was 500 scoops of ice cream to support their socio-emotional wellness and cards to encourage them in the school year.

Now, a select group of teens are raising money to support over 3,000 youth in service. We have already begun by organizing a Charity Event with local radio and NFL alumni personalities.

We still need your help and we want to thank those who participated in giving. This school year, and quarter, we reached over 200 youth in programming, 140 youth in service, and have an active leadership team of 40+ youth in youth leadership training. We are keeping youth safe and stopping bullies by keeping youth in action!

On 9/11 day of service 2019, our youth reached 1,000 youth to provide cards of supports and notes of appreciation to our military and first responders.