Deadline: 6-Jan-22
The Elevate Youth California has announced Youth Substance Use Disorder Prevention Program: Innovation Track to support community-based organizations, Tribal organizations and county behavioral health agencies throughout California to pilot and evaluate innovative practices in youth-led activism, peer support and mentoring in communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
This funding opportunity focuses on youth-serving entities that currently provide or are developing innovative youth-led social justice, peer support and mentoring strategies. The Innovation Track opportunity will be implemented for 33 months replicating the proposed innovative strategy or new promising program.
At the end of the second year, funded partners will be required to participate in an evaluation using the appreciative inquiry method led by a third-party evaluator contracted by The Center. Eligible applicants including community-based organizations, Tribal organizations and county behavioral health prevention programs are expected to:
- Pilot and evaluate innovative practices in youth-led activism, peer support and mentoring in communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs
- Reflect the communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs
- Develop and implement culturally and linguistically appropriate social justice youth development, peer-to-peer support and mentoring programs that are healing-centered, trauma-informed and focused on youth ages 12-26
- Utilize an intersectional approach to health equity through policy, systems and environmental change
- Intend to incorporate evaluation approaches to build upon the learnings from these new and innovative approaches to substance use prevention
- Utilize best practices in prevention and apply them in new domains (geographic: community, municipality, neighborhood, etc.; sectors: business, local agencies, etc.)
- Prioritize harm reduction and public health solutions that focus on positive messages to prevent substance use disorder
- Connect across various levels of the socio-ecological model to address the individual, relationship, community and societal factors that lead to substance use
- Pilot community-driven, culturally responsive solutions
- Engage non-traditional partners in prevention
Funding Information
- $500,000 – $750,000 for 33 months (2 years, 9 months) for 501(c)(3) community-based organizations, Tribal organizations, County Behavioral Health Departments, and coalitions/collaboratives.
- Up to 20% of direct costs may be requested as indirect costs.
- Funding will be distributed in low-income urban and rural areas throughout California.
- Grants will cover activities for the following time period: February 16, 2022, to November 15, 2024.
Activities
- While priorities and issues of focus vary between communities, this funding is a chance to reimagine opportunities and ways of healing for youth and communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
- All selected activities must be related to youth 12-26 years old in low-income, rural and/or urban racial, ethnic and cultural communities disproportionally impacted by the War on Drugs. Examples of innovative initiatives include:
- Establishment of a youth-led coalition to raise awareness on how systemic racism and the War on Drugs criminalizes specific youth of color to expand opportunities for youth of color.
- Creation of an adult or peer mentorship program to provide mentorship to youth involved in the foster care system.
- Developing a youth-driven public-private partnership with county behavioral health and the county office of education to align youth substance prevention programs, practices and policy.
- To expand a county’s youth-led alcohol prevention coalition to address other substances using community-driven best practices, and policies that expand appropriate stigma-reducing approaches.
- Art-based youth-driven program to strengthen political and public will to provide non-law enforcement, public health approaches to youth substance use intervention.
- Healing-centered and culturally responsive youth substance use prevention approaches that build resilience and address social norms around substance use in schools and youth-serving community organizations.
- Convening a neighborhood-specific youth group to develop policy recommendations on how to plan and use state and federal COVID-19 relief dollars on youth development and substance use prevention.
- Organizing a cross-system, multisector and youth and community-driven policy-making body to address root causes of youth substance use through a health-driven prevention strategy.
- Other innovative efforts to expand youth substance use disorder prevention and education in California racial, ethnic and cultural communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
Eligibility Criteria
Organizations must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Must have an office located in California.
- Provide services in California.
- Are a 501(c)3 community-based organization, Tribal organization,7 or a County Behavioral Health Department with established and trusted community relationships. Also open to coalitions of organizations and collaboratives, as long as the backbone organization is an eligible applicant.
- Applicant organization must not have an active Elevate Youth California grant. Fiscal sponsors are the exception and are allowed to submit for a new fiscally sponsored project that was not awarded a previous Elevate Youth California grant.
- Have demonstrated experience partnering with young people of color and other marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
- Applicant organizations and collaborative partners must deeply engage and reflect the proposed communities served that are disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.8 Grantee partners should have a history of working with impacted communities, including representation on the board and staff, organizational leadership, clients served and neighborhoods served.
- Applicant organizations and their partners must have demonstrated evidence of inclusivity and shall not discriminate based on race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation or military status in any of its activities or operations.
- Applicant organizations must take innovative approaches to program implementation and commit to participating in the appreciative inquiry.
For more information, visit https://elevateyouthca.org/2021/11/funding-available-for-youth-substance-use-disorder-prevention-program-innovation-track/