Playworks helps kids to stay active and build valuable life skills through play

Nonprofit in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District dedicated to supporting, empowering, and enabling first generation students to move from sixth grade through college graduation and into careers that are meaningful to them. 12-year free program offering test prep, high school and college evaluation and applications, field trips and school/university visits, scholarship and internship access, community building and networking, career exploration, family workshops, and more.

The mission of the Lighthouse of Hope Counseling Center is to assist people using their natural abilities to achieve their goals and to facilitate emotional and spiritual development.

Lack of economic opportunity and environmental degradation lead to exploitation – so we are fighting to end both at their core. When healthy, people and planet function together in harmony, in a world where no one is for sal

MidPen Housing is one of the nation’s leading non-profit developers, owners and managers of high-quality affordable housing. In the 45 years since MidPen was founded, we have developed over 100 communities and 8,000 homes for low-income families, seniors and special needs individuals throughout Northern California. Our developments are award-winning and nationally recognized.

A Court Appointed Special Advocates program, CASA of San Mateo County pairs foster children with community volunteers who provide one-on-one support, mentoring, and advocacy in the courtroom and beyond.

Our mission is to recruit, train and support those willing to provide a home or volunteer services to at-risk children. We are a non-profit, non-denominational, local outreach to families caring for children both in and out of the foster care system.

Best Buddies International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Our mission is to transform East Oakland into a healthy and economically robust community by developing the leadership of youth and young adults and improving the systems that impact them.

Located in the heart of East Oakland, YU is a neighborhood hub offering young people services and programs to increase physical and mental wellbeing, community connection, educational attainment, and career achievement among youth members.

Larkin Street provides youth between the ages of 12 and 24 with the help they need to rebuild their lives. Each year, more than 3,000 youth walk through our doors seeking help. We give them a place where they can feel safe; rebuild their sense of self-respect, trust, and hope; learn school, life and job skills; and find the confidence to build a future.

Edgewood Center for Children and Families (Edgewood) helps children, youth, and their families who are struggling with mental illness, and debilitating behavioral issues. Edgewood provides treatment and prevention programs that help many children and families overcome these challenges and transform their lives.

NOVA is a nonprofit, federally funded employment and training agency that provides customer-focused workforce development services. We work closely with local businesses, educators, and job seekers to ensure that our programs provide opportunities that build the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to address the workforce needs of Silicon Valley.

Family Connections provides educational services to low-income families including tuition-free parent participation preschool, parent education and links to community services as well as support to children and their parents throughout K-12, building a path to achievement and giving them the tools and resources they need for success.

CORA is the only agency in San Mateo County solely dedicated to helping those affected by intimate partner abuse. From counseling, to emergency housing, to legal assistance, our services are designed to provide safety, support, and healing.

Second Harvest is committed to doing whatever it takes to build a hunger-free community. That means distributing nutritious food to nearly every neighborhood in Silicon Valley, leveraging every available food resource, and collaborating with organizations and people who share our belief that hunger is unacceptable. Nutritious food is the foundation for a healthy, productive life.

Berkeley Youth Alternatives is a community based organization. Our vision is to provide a secure and nurturing environment for all the children, youth, and families of our community. We desire to promote, to their fullest potential, the freedom to develop individual skills and visions of the world.

Our mission is to help children, youth, and their families address issues and problems via Prevention by reaching youth before their problems become crises, and via Intervention through the provision of support services to youth entangled in the juvenile justice system. BYA helps to build capacity within individuals to reach their innate potential.

B:E is Alameda County’s primary provider of services for former foster youth.

Since our inception in 1995, we have grown from a small auxiliary of the County’s Independent Living Skills Program to an independent nonprofit organization serving nearly 800 youth each year.

B:E provides a range of supportive programs designed to help former foster and probation youth overcome their challenges, mitigate risks, and make healthy, successful transitions to adulthood and independent living.

Headquartered in Bayview/Hunter’s Point, Old Skool Cafe is a youth-run, jazz-themed supper club to serve youth as an intensive real-world vocational training ground, employment incubator, supportive cohort, income generator, and connection point with a larger community that champions their success.

The East Bay Center for the Blind offers services and social activities to a diverse group of people who are blind or low vision, many of whom are not assisted by other agencies. We give particular attention to individual needs and circumstances. Members and non-members may attend classes and events. Members are also eligible to vote, run for office and serve on the Board of Directors.

JobTrain is committed to helping those who are most in need to succeed.  Our purpose is to improve the lives of people in our community through assessment, attitude and job skills training, and high potential career placement.

JobTrain is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational and training institution accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Each of JobTrain’s programs combines vocational training, academics, and essential skills development, preparing students to turn their lives around—from unemployment and poverty to success and self-sufficiency. Strong partnerships with employers ensure that students receive the training they need for employment so that businesses can find motivated workers who are well trained for their jobs.  For 50 years, JobTrain has been adapting to meet current employment needs.  Since its inception, more than 190,000 low-income individuals and their families have benefited from JobTrain’s programs.

Unity Care is a minority-led, strengths-based, family-focused, and culturally proficient youth and family development agency.  Since 1993, our mission is to “provide quality youth and family programs for the purpose of creating healthier communities through lifelong partnerships.”  Each year, Unity Care advocates the most effective form of care for 3,500 at-risk foster children and families to improve their physical, mental, spiritual and emotional well-being.  Unity Care offers innovative community-based, mental health and housing programs with offices in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Placer counties.

CYC is the only organization in California to engage foster youth in the policy making process. Our foster youth leaders have created a fundamental paradigm shift in child welfare policy in California, ensuring that foster youth are at the center of child welfare policymaking for the first time in history.  They are full partners at the policy table, their priorities are shaping reform, and the rate of reform is rapidly increasing.

A Better Way empowers children and families to develop the insights, life skills, and permanent relationships that promote their social, emotional, educational and economic well- being.

San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) provides a broad spectrum of services for children, youth, families, adults and older adults for the prevention, early intervention and treatment of mental illness and/or substance use conditions. We are committed to supporting treatment of the whole person to achieve wellness and recovery, and promoting the physical and behavioral health of individuals, families and communities we serve.

YAIL (Young Adult Independent Living) provides an array of specialized services to transition-age youth (TAY, or 18-25 year olds) who need support while they develop and work towards living more independently and accomplishing their life goals.  YAIL meets program participants where they’re at, bases its work on each participant’s individualized, strengths-based treatment plan, and ultimately helps each participant achieve the goals of greatest importance to them (e.g., how to keep an apartment, make/maintain friends, and manage mental health issues so it doesn’t interfere with dreams and goals).

YEAH! is a community of local citizens, students, working and retired people, and social service professionals addressing the issues of youth homelessness.

YEAH! helps youth set goals and create lives they want. We believe that the co-creation of community with young people is one of the most transformational ways to achieve our goals.

Generation Citizen (GC) works to ensure that every student in the United States receives an effective action civics education, which provides them with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in our democracy as active citizens.  We envision a country of young people working as active and effective citizens to collectively rebuild our American democracy. 

GC teaches teenagers how to take effective political action.  Through an innovative in-class curriculum, students work with local leaders to fix local problems.  Through this real-world experience, our teens are building an active democracy.

Our innovative, action-based program will revolutionize civics education in this country. Generation Citizen is building a new generation of youth activists and leaders; a generation inspired and equipped to make change.

HIP Housing’s Mission is to invest in human potential by improving the housing and lives of people in our community. HIP Housing enables people with special needs, either from income or circumstance, to live independent, self-sufficient lives in decent, safe, low-cost homes.

To achieve our mission, HIP Housing provides Home Sharing, Self-Sufficiency, and Property Development.

The Haight Street Referral Center is a hub for Larkin Street’s outreach activities in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood near Golden Gate National Park, an area where homeless youth still gather, years after the initial influx of youth to this neighborhood in the 1960s. The Haight Street Referral Center is an important resource for at-risk kids who need basic assistance — including food, hygiene supplies, and referrals to Larkin Street’s housing, education and job assistance programs and other community resources. The Haight Street Center is a safe place to hang out with peers, attend groups focused on substance abuse and HIV prevention, and begin to develop relationships with caring adults.

The Engagement & Community Center is more than just a place to hang out. It also offers connection to education and offers recreational activities where they can connect with peers and adults. Through groups, outings and one-on-one conversations, Engagement & Community Center staff support youth with a variety of special needs such as education, family reunification, legal matters, and sexual identity issues. It also serves as a portal to further services. Each new visitor to the Center receives an individual assessment to determine what other services—such as medical care, counseling, or housing—would best suit their immediate and long-term needs.

The Diamond Youth Shelter is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The shelter was rebuilt thanks to the success of an ambitious capital campaign in 2009; it is a state-of-the-art emergency shelter for younger homeless youth and teens. This youth shelter is considered temporary housing for Larkin Street youth not because these kids will be returning to the street, but because staff help them to either reunite with their families or find an appropriate longer-term housing solutions.

The Lark-Inn is San Francisco’s first and only full-service homeless shelter specifically for youth where young adults can get off the streets and begin to stabilize their lives. Launched in 2000, the Lark-Inn is part of the City of San Francisco’s homeless shelter network and the only shelter designated for transition age youth ages 18 – 24.