Elevate Youth California (EYC) program

Elevate Youth California (EYC) program is sponsored by California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Elevate Youth California (EYC) supports community-based organizations and Tribal organizations throughout California that focus on youth ages 12 to 26 and work on culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate prevention, outreach, and education projects.

These grants aim to strengthen community-based prevention and reduce substance use among youth, empowering them to lead change in their communities.

Elevate Youth California: Cohort 7 Standard Track - California Grants Portal Through this round of Elevate Youth California (EYC) funding, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is making approximately $46. 98 million available to community-based, Tribal, and county behavioral health organizations throughout California to expand youth and young adult substance use prevention through policy, systems, and environmental change.

EYC is a DHCS statewide program addressing substance use disorder (SUD) by investing in youth leadership and civic engagement for youth of color and 2S/LGBTQIA+ youth ages 12 to 26 living in communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

This statewide program provides funding and technical assistance for organizations proposing to implement programs that empower youth to be community leaders and create positive policy and systems change.

EYC funded partners will be responsible for implementing comprehensive strategies that reduce risk factors (e.g., trauma, disconnection from school/community) and enhance protective factors (e.g., cultural identity, adult/peer mentorship, community and civic engagement) associated with youth substance use prevention.

Projects are recommended to utilize evidence-based, promising, and/or community-driven practices in their prevention approach and incorporate social justice youth development in all programming. Funded partners will conduct annual listening sessions to gather feedback from youth and young adults on the impact of prevention efforts and to identify opportunities for project improvement.

Additionally, funded partners are expected to actively participate in technical assistance opportunities hosted by The Center, engage in an external evaluation to assess the effectiveness of EYC, and attend one-day regional convenings, at least two over the award period. EYC funded partners will be required to submit biannual progress and financial reports.

Success will be measured by progress towards programmatic and policy, systems, and environmental change goals and objectives contained in an approved work plan, which must include processes for monitoring and evaluation of youth engagement, prevention activities, policy, systems, and environmental change, and participant outcomes through quantitative and qualitative methods.

Additional indicators of success include participants' increased knowledge of SUD and its prevention, reduced stigma around substance use services, and evidence of community-level policy, systems, and environmental changes related to substance use issues or their root causes. Since the program’s launch, DHCS has awarded $323. 27 million through 460 grant awards.

For information about EYC, visit www. elevateyouthca. org .

Must be a 501(c)(3) community-based organization or Tribal organization with established and trusted community relationships. Applicant cannot have an active EYC grant. EYC-funded partners whose current award ends by December 2025 are eligible to apply.

Fiscal sponsors are allowed to submit a new fiscally sponsored project that was not awarded a previous EYC grant. Additional eligibility requirements will be listed in the RFA. Statewide.

Must be located in California and service California. The date (and time, where applicable) by which all applications must be submitted to the grantmaker. Time listed as “00:00” equates to midnight.

Expected award announcement The date on which the grantor expects to announce the recipient(s) of the grant. The length of time during which the grant money must be utilized. Total estimated available funding The total projected dollar amount of the grant.

Expected number of awards A single grant opportunity may represent one or many awards. Some grantors may know in advance the exact number of awards to be given. Others may indicate a range.

Some may wish to and wait until the application period closes before determining how many awards to offer; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display. Estimated amount per award Grant opportunities representing multiple awards may offer awards in the same amount or in varied amounts.

Some may wish to wait until the application period closes before determining per-award amounts; in this case, a value of “Dependent” will display. Letter of Intent Required? Certain grants require that the recipient(s) provide a letter of intent.

Requires Matched Funding? Certain grants require that the recipient(s) be able to fully or partially match the grant award amount with another funding source. The funding source allocated to fund the grant.

It may be either State or Federal (or a combination of both), and be tied to a specific piece of legislation, a proposition, or a bond number. Elevate Youth California Program funding is being made available through the Elevate Youth California: Youth Substance Use Disorder Prevention Program: Cohort 7 Standard Track Request for Applications (RFA).

Elevate Youth California is a program of the DHCS funded through Proposition 64 California Cannabis Tax Fund, Allocation 3, Youth Education, Prevention, Early Intervention, and Treatment Account. The manner in which the grant funding will be delivered to the awardee.

Funding methods include reimbursements (where the recipient spends out-of-pocket and is reimbursed by the grantor) and advances (where the recipient spends received grant funds directly). Advances & Reimbursement(s) Entities receiving an award for an Elevate Youth California Grant should note that there is no guarantee of future EYC Program funding. State agencies/departments recommend you read the full grant guidelines before applying.

For questions about this grant, contact: Matt Cervantes, 1-916-420-1117, mcervantes@sierrahealth.

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Grant will not release/is not active until August 18, 2025.