About Youth Voice

Youth Voice Program

 

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about this program

The Youth Voice Program will work to bring together youth-serving partners, including area schools, community-based organizations, and after-school programs to align priorities through a Collective Impact model, ultimately centering youth in a participatory leadership development program. The program will work to improve safety, create opportunities, and support youth leadership.

TLCBD will serve as the youth-centered Community Convener, unifying multi sector partners and community stakeholders to realize goals. The convener group is underway and is currently engaged in an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Aware training series and will work to complete a Tenderloin Neighborhood Assets and Needs Landscape Analysis before launching a Fellows Program for teens.

Fellows

Through the Fellows Program, transitional age youth will learn about Collective Impact for advocacy and community building projects and pathways to jobs by collaborating with workforce development programs. Utilizing strategies in intervention, prevention, outreach and re-entry, the Youth Voice Program will build the necessary foundation and advocacy for a multi-year plan centered on the needs of youth and families to reduce violence and harms related to drug dealing in the Tenderloin.

Origins & Funding

The Youth Voice program is modeled on evidence-based programs that have delivered positive outcomes for youth in other San Francisco neighborhoods. For example, Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities (MAGIC) was founded in 2004 in the Bayview neighborhood to address communities plagued by poverty and violence. In 2006, a similar program called Mo’MAGIC was created in the Fillmore neighborhood.

This work is made possible by a U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods grant, and provided through the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California. The total $588,664 grant amount will be used to launch, implement, and sustain the Youth Voice Program through September 30, 2023.

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leadership

 

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The Youth Voice Program complements TLCBD’s Neighborhood Pride area of focus as part of a larger Core Framework for a healthy and vibrant Tenderloin. Over the last several years, TLCBD has grown significantly in size and scope, building robust programs through strong collaboration with multi-sector partners and leveraging additional funding to expand impact. We have expanded on the foundational Clean and Safe areas of the framework and are now working to deliver inviting sidewalks, parks and shared public spaces to grow neighborhood pride and build economic opportunity for our diverse neighborhood communities. 

The Youth Voice Program will be led by TLCBD’s Director of Youth Voice, Esan Looper. TLCBD is excited by this addition to the team given Esan’s unique qualifications to carry out this vision over the next three years. He is the son of Kathy and “Father of the Tenderloin” Leroy Looper and comes to the work with more than 27 years of experience in youth development, community development and education, most recently working for 14 years with Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

Questions, comments, want to get involved? Email Youth Voice Director, Esan Looper at esan@tlcbd.org.

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