What We Do

We Grow Strong Families and Community

We’re organizing to make sure that kids and young people grow up with opportunities to exercise leadership and to make positive change. We’re working to increase public investments in child and youth services in Sacramento and statewide. In just under six years, Youth Forward has built considerable change-making capacity and won significant victories for children, youth and families.

Teenage boy with hoodie

Youth Initiatives

Youth leadership icon

Youth Leadership

We work with communities and families to ensure children are gaining traction as leaders within their community.

Youth justice icon

Youth Justice

We convene and catalyze the Sacramento region’s criminal legal, economic and anti-criminalizing policy reform community.

Mental health icon

Mental Health

We work to increase access to culturally-grounded mental health support for youth of color, LGBTQ youth and other vulnerable youth through advocating for the expansion of peer to peer approaches.

Cannabis policy icon

Cannabis Policy

We work to ensure that state and local revenues generated from cannabis taxes are reinvested in communities of color that were most impacted during the War on Drugs.

Community Impact

At the local and state levels, Youth Forward works with over 300 community-based organizations to develop its policy positions and to create coordinated, influential advocacy campaigns. We learn from those community-rooted organizations who work with young people every day and we organize to bring those voices and perspectives into local and state policy discussions. We seek to strengthen the work of community-based organizations through advocating for increased investments in children and youth services. In addition we provide consulting and coaching to youth organizing efforts.

Curve decoration
Translate »