San Francisco, CA -- Mayor London N. Breed and the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) today announced over $460 million in new grant funding to support the City’s efforts to ensure that all children and youth are supported by nurturing families and communities, are physically and emotionally healthy, are ready to learn and succeed in school, and that all youth are ready for college, work, and productive adulthood.
This investment will support hundreds of programs and initiatives, including afterschool programs, employment opportunities, services for system-impacted youth, and resources for underserved populations. The new funding is made possible by the Children and Families First Initiative, reauthorized in 2014. This voter-approved initiative increased San Francisco’s Children and Youth Fund to 4 cents of every $100 of assessed property tax revenue.
DCYF administers the Children and Youth Fund to community-based organizations that provide services for children, youth, transitional age youth (TAY), and their families. DCYF issued a Request for Proposals in August 2023 to determine which programs would receive funding.
“When we support our youth and families, we create a stronger, more resilient future for our young people and our city,” said Mayor Breed. “These long-term investments have reverberating impacts on the health and well-being of the children of our city and deliver on our fundamental commitment to provide care and support for everyone in San Francisco. When children thrive, when families thrive, San Francisco thrives.”
This investment prioritizes a range of high-need populations and groups, and ensures that children, youth, TAY, and families have access to high quality programs that meet their needs. The 2024-2029 grantee portfolio includes 142 community-based organizations (CBOs) that will implement 231 programs, providing services in neighborhoods across the City.
Investment highlights include:
- Afterschool and Summer Programs: Supports 26 Beacon Community Schools programs at San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) schools, and 41 community-based afterschool and summer programs by increasing investment in Out of School Time programs to over $31 million annually.
- Educational Support: Supports 13 academic support programs, 3 programs offering alternative education, 4 programs providing literacy support, and 1 initiative that works with youth in SFUSD summer school by increasing investment in Educational Supports programs to over $7 million annually.
- School Crisis Support: Funds five programs that provide services under the School Crisis Support Initiative by providing $1.8 million in new funding annually. This collaboration between DCYF, SFUSD, and the Juvenile Probation Department identifies, tracks and monitors violent school campus incidents, and provides support to impacted youth.
- Transitional Age Youth: Supports TAY across multiple service areas by investing over $9 million annually in 3 programs that support academic achievement, 9 workforce development programs, 10 arts programs and 14 programs that provide opportunities for TAY to learn about the social and historical contexts of their identities, strengthen connections with peers and caring adults and build coping skills and self-esteem.
“This portfolio represents the culmination of DCYF’s planning cycle, and I’m proud of the work that it took to put it together,” said DCYF’s Executive Director Maria Su. “For the 2024-2029 funding cycle, we’re committed to deepening the impact of our work. By grounding ourselves in data and the experiences of youth and families, developing intentional approaches for meeting needs and disparities, and by partnering with City agencies and SFUSD, we believe that we can achieve better outcomes for children, youth, TAY, and their families. Our new portfolio includes a range of opportunities, including academic support, afterschool and summer programs, enrichment, workforce development, and leadership programming. We are looking forward to working with the agencies in our new grantee portfolio and our City and SFUSD partners to continue to make San Francisco a great place to grow up."
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