INDIVIDUAL GRANT PROGRAM

City Youth Now's Individual Grants Program has been at the heart of our mission for nearly six decades. Over the years, we have learned that it is critical to respond to each child on an individual basis, and the importance of the small things in the life of a child.

Probation officers, social workers, attorneys, CASAs and youth advocates come to us daily with requests for youth under their supervision. These requests range from emergency clothing for a youth who is leaving juvenile hall with no clothes, or a youth who has been taken to the Children Protection Shelter with only the clothes on his/her back, to individual tutoring for a youth with educational needs, or financial assistance for youth who are aging out of the system to independent living.

Unfortunately, the public funds, services, and programs available are not always able to recognize and address the individual needs of the children in the system. City Youth Now works to ensure that no child is forgotten or overlooked. We are, by design, a safety net when the system is not meeting more than basic needs. In the last year alone, we filled over 6,000 requests submitted by youth advocates—funding karate classes, leadership courses, art classes, furniture for a first apartment, summer camp, education assistance, eyeglasses, dental work, holiday gifts, laptop computers for college bound youth, textbooks, and clothing, to name a few.

For many of these youth, our flexible Individual Grants Program is often the only place they can turn for help. The City Youth Now Individual Grant program supplements resources available through the system to stabilize San Francisco's young people, helping one child at a time.