Shifting Hopelessness to Hope with Collective Collaboration. How PRO Youth & Families Serves Our Community.

Staci Anderson: [00:00:00] The problem we have is right now in Sacramento, 46 percent of 11th graders are feeling completely hopeless, right? And COVID impacted that greatly, but that's a horrible statistic. And it that's higher than on a national level. It's about 35%. So what does that lead to? Drug use, depression, violence, you know, disconnected from your community, your family.

That leads to all of those issues.

Jeff Holden: Hi, I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story. In their words, to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve, as well as provide [00:01:00] one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices, and to both encourage and support the growth of local non profit organizations through podcasting. Thanks to our founding partners for their foresight in helping us transform the way conversations start. CapTrust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations.

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If you'd like to become a partner with us, please reach out and email me, jeff at hearmenowstudio dot com, [00:02:00] so I can share this new opportunity to become a valued sponsor of the program. A lot of things happened in the 80s that many of us recall and relate to, And those early 80s also saw the formation of a small group of concerned community members develop an organization to tackle some of the crime, gang, and drug issues that were popping up in their neighborhood.

The entity, named People Reaching Out, made enough of an impact in a short period of time to earn a commendation from First Lady Nancy Reagan. Today, over 40 years later, the name has changed, the programs have grown exponentially, And the budget is much bigger, but the mission remains the same. I can't do it justice by simply saying it's all about the youth, but it's a great place to start.

And we're going to let the CEO and president of Pro Youth, Stacey Anderson, bring us up to speed on what's been happening under her leadership these past 22 years. Stacey Anderson, [00:03:00] welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. 

Staci Anderson: I'm very excited to be here. 

Jeff Holden: as I am to have you. So 1981, that's a long time. That's a mature organization, almost 40 plus years.

Staci Anderson: Exactly. 

Jeff Holden: And if I'm not mistaken, it had a different name that was, it was people reaching out. 

Staci Anderson: Right. Which you 

Jeff Holden: have nicely incorporated into, into pro youth. Tell us a little bit about the organization and why you think it's been able to not only survive, but thrive through this, this tenure of a lot of.

Staci Anderson: Well, I think the thing about people reaching out pro youth and families now is that it had a wonderful foundation when I first came on board. So I've been there 22 years. And I think Almost 

Jeff Holden: half of the organization's life. Over half now. Over half, yes. Yeah. 

Staci Anderson: And I think that there was this wonderful foundation that Kathy Hill, who was the original developer of the organization, but it was over half.

Out of a community movement. So it was really in response to the drug and alcohol issues. And [00:04:00] you had like 500 community members come together to really try to solve that problem. Specifically in a park, in Fair Oaks Park. So I think that there was buy in from the community from the beginning. And it was really built and developed that way, and always a very responsive organization.

And I think the other key is, we always put young people at the center of that work. So it was always building capacity of young people to take those messages on and to build what we were doing in the work, right? So I think that that has always been one of the key things about pro youth and families.

But also, consistent leadership. I mean, we were very lucky to have Kathy for 20 years. She had really good relationships in the business community, which most nonprofits in the 80s did not. She had a great relationship on a national level. So I felt like I really got to take over a very solid, professional, well thought out organization.

And I've been there 22 years. And I think that that plays a huge role in [00:05:00] being able to consistently You know, be a strong organization. We've got had our ups and downs. Don't get me wrong. You know, funding is always a struggle, but. 

Jeff Holden: Well, certainly leadership is paramount in a nonprofit and you've only had two.

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: CEO, presidents, executive directors, to where you label them through the course of its time. That's amazing for an organization to be this mature and this Deep in its programs and to only have two people. That's a testament to the quality of the people they've hired, certainly. 

Staci Anderson: For sure. And I think also, you know, we've really, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, in our collaborative work that we've done to really kind of rethink and restructure the way nonprofits work.

Work together. I think that's it's always reevaluating and rethinking. And I mean, I go back to you've got to respond to what the needs of the community are. And I think a lot of organizations get very stuck. Whereas we were a smaller organization. And, you know, we had 10 to 13 people. [00:06:00] And, you know, now we're up to 33.

But a lot of that was that we could be flexible quickly and really respond fast. And I think so many organizations get caught in all the system stuff that they have to do and the approvals where I'm like, yeah, that's a great idea. Let's go. Right. 

Jeff Holden: Cause you know, you've been there, done 

Staci Anderson: that. Yep. And I know how to work with the systems that exist and we are pretty good about getting the right people.

federal funding and state funding and those sort of things. And 

Jeff Holden: we'll touch on that too. We will. In terms of the organization itself, you say it started as a substance use disorder for, for youth. 

Staci Anderson: Really prevention. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. And where is it today? Where has it grown in terms of its scope of service? Because I know you've got.

Staci Anderson: Well, what I want to say about in that space, it was always work where we were out in the schools working with young people to do drug and alcohol prevention messaging to their peers, right? That, that always existed at lots of different [00:07:00] school sites. We've really grown. In the whole, so let me start here, let me start with what the real problem is, because what happens I think with so many organizations is we go to the problem, but we don't then take, we use the problem as that's what we're going to do, we're going to just solve A, right?

So we were spending a lot of time, and that was very classic, the 80s, 90s. The problem is drug and alcohol use, but really what our programs were doing from the very beginning was building capacity of young people to be educators, to be resilient, to be leaders, all the things that really, if you're able to do that as a young person, then you're much healthier and you don't have as much of a need to go to drugs, be dealing with depression, a lot of those other things.

Because you're feeling like you're a useful, connected person to the community. Bring it, fast forward today, I think the reality is, not I think, but the problem we have, [00:08:00] is right now in Sacramento, 46 percent of 11th graders are feeling completely hopeless. Right? That, that's sad 11th 

Jeff Holden: would be junior, roughly, in high school.

We're just about to graduate and probably having no sense of direction. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. Exactly. Right. And COVID impacted that greatly, but that's a horrible statistic. And it that's higher than on a national level. It's about 35%. But it's almost every kid. Yeah. So what does that lead to? Drug use, depression, violence, you know, disconnected from your community, your family.

And that leads to all of those issues, right? All those symptoms that happen. So instead of directly saying, let's deal with drug and alcohol, let's deal with depression, let's, what we do is we have created programming that then builds all of those resiliency skills that young people need. It gives them a place, [00:09:00] a voice where they can be empowered themselves.

So we have a civic engagement program that we do. We have relationship skills programming. We've just developed actually through COVID mental wellness program that we're delivering. And we're doing this in over 62 different schools. And, and so. My next question, 

Jeff Holden: how broad is the reach at this point? 

Staci Anderson: About 14 school districts and 67 schools.

And our goal is really to take a lot of our work on a national and statewide, which we can talk about a little bit more, but that's really, it's bringing those services into the schools and to the community and to our partners. 

Jeff Holden: How does the school, teacher, leadership in the institution identify you as an opportunity?

Staci Anderson: Well, so we, we have a, we have been in school districts for the full 40 years, really. Okay. Most, most of the districts we've had. So you're well 

Jeff Holden: known in the circle of academia there for high school and you do Elementary, 12 

Staci Anderson: to [00:10:00] 24 year olds is what we're working with. And yes, we have really trusted relationships.

But what has been interesting in the last four years, or I would say three years, Three years is really and, you know, a lot of it related to cove it as well is for a long time. We were in the after school space. That was the only place we were allowed to go. We weren't allowed to mess with academics, which we kept on saying social and emotional health is going to get you a lot of the classroom.

Jeff Holden: It's in the classroom. Help us. Yeah, 

Staci Anderson: you can't learn history if you're struggling with these other things, right? So Interestingly enough, and for all sad reasons, you know, a lot of schools are struggling with violence. They're struggling with their kids being so depressed that they can't even show up to school.

Or when they're there, they're totally disconnected. So, they've opened up classes. So, we have principals now. And lead people, administrators on these school campuses that are pleading with [00:11:00] us to come in and use the school day to deliver these programs. You know, our relationship skills program is just pretty mind blowing because young people come out of that and they're like, Wow, I've been in an unhealthy relationship for a long time.

Or could you come in and work with my parents because I don't think, but they are gaining these skills and insights to foundationally. What do they deserve? Who are they? How do they build those? You know, what's your love language, right? What are the things that you need and deserve? That and even around mental wellness.

How do I, how do I manage my, my mental health, right? That's, those are all skills that young people need. We all need them, really. But the schools have opened their doors wide open. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and I noticed even on the website you had some comments about They were quotes from students in the program or had gone through the program talking about a relationship that, I don't know why I was in this relationship.

This pointed out to me that this was a bad situation. Or another one that I [00:12:00] saw that it was pretty poignant. It was from a male student who was saying, We've never expressed anything about how we feel. And to be able to share some of those things was really monumental for him. 

Staci Anderson: Yes, that's right. And culturally, right?

So we have a very diverse team. And they are those kids themselves, right? Who have now are, you know, professionals in the field. And they really know how to connect to these young people so we can create. And the most important part of all the work is is creating that space to have those conversations, right?

I mean, you can have the best curriculum and all the deep, you know, this is how we're going to do it, and you sit down with this wonderful, amazing curriculum, but at the end of the day, it's not the curriculum as much as it's the person knowing how to deliver and knowing how to support youth and having those discussions.

Jeff Holden: Is everything you do through school systems? 

Staci Anderson: No, we also have a lot of I didn't think so. Mm hmm. We also do some work through just the community in a variety of different [00:13:00] spaces. We work with some drug treatment programs and youth drug treatment programs out in the community. We've done some stuff with WIN Youth Services and a bunch of different organizations.

So wherever, Job Corps is another example. We work really closely with the Job Corps program. You know, wherever you need us, we're going to be there. If you've got a group of young people or you want us to recruit a group of young people, that's what we're doing. 

Jeff Holden: Let's walk through some of the programs, starting with maybe the most significant.

We don't have to go through everything that you do, but certainly some are higher either need or participation than others. What would be the most prevalent program that you've got? That you're delivering all the time. 

Staci Anderson: Well, it's really a relation. The two things I would say is our relationship skills work is we're doing across the board in multiple ways.

So we have multiple. And that's probably 

Jeff Holden: something that's changed over time, I would imagine. Because I hear it from everybody. It's conflict resolution. Nobody knows how to deal with people. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah, [00:14:00] exactly. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Definitely. A lot of it is, I think the foundation of all of our work is for youth to become familiar with who they are 

Jeff Holden: and what 

Staci Anderson: their goals are, right?

And acknowledging what their needs are, how to just self regulate their emotions. I mean, there's a lot of. That need that everybody, I mean, I talk about young people, but it's not any different. 

Jeff Holden: I'm smiling. I was just about to say, it's not just youth. 

Staci Anderson: No, exactly. Um, I think that those programs and then really the mental, the mind one six is a bright is a curriculum that we developed during COVID.

Jeff Holden: We had that too. The, the, the plan nine one six. Yes. 

Staci Anderson: Well, one in six young people struggle with mental health. That's where it is. Yeah. Cause a lot of people think it's nine one six, but it's not. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: One in six? 

Staci Anderson: One in six. 

Jeff Holden: Wow. 

Staci Anderson: Right. Exactly. So, during COVID, we had people come, other community partners come to us and go, you know, you're in that youth development space.

We put youth at the center of everything that we [00:15:00] do. We know how to work with young people. They were like, we need, we need a foundational, you know, a foundation. mental wellness curriculum, not a mental health, a mental, I mean, it is health. 

Jeff Holden: Sure. 

Staci Anderson: So we worked with the community and built out a program, a curriculum that we just put together and then started delivering it.

We worked actually, Sac City Unified School District, we served over 300 young people with the program. And It was really, it is an incredible for young people. They just feel like they gained all these tools that they know how to meditate. Now they know when they're feeling stressed, what are the tools that they need to be able to de stress themselves?

You know, there's, so there's a lot of like, they know if somebody's in trouble, they know where to go. They know how to direct someone or themselves to the resources that are available. So the difference between So much [00:16:00] better. Oh, it's incredible. I mean, so I think and we're also the other goal of that curriculum is to build them as advocates.

So when a young person leaves that, that curriculum, they're done with that program. They should be able to go out, and they do feel comfortable going out and talking to friends about services and resources. They feel way more comfortable. I mean, the stats are really high in terms of the difference in just feeling like they have some control over them for themselves, but also that they can be resourceful to other people in their communities.

Many of them do additional projects around advocating for mental health. and wellness. And this is the other thing that we're doing with a number of other community partners, which we can talk a little bit more in our collaboration bucket. But yeah, those two, and then really at the foundation, a lot of foundational stuff that we're doing is around civic engagement.

Jeff Holden: Glad you brought, cause I wasn't sure which, what the hierarchy looked like. You know, I 

Staci Anderson: can't really say. To me, 

Jeff Holden: that is so important because [00:17:00] people have got to get involved. Yes. They have to get involved and to see that you're actually engaging them. Tell me a little bit about that program. 

Staci Anderson: Well, I mean, if we look at democracy, right, which we don't really want to, but we, we do, we have a crisis.

Jeff Holden: Yes. 

Staci Anderson: And I think that young people don't feel like they can be at the table. I think a lot of people don't. But we have been doing civic engagement. I'll use city of Rancho Cordova. We've been working with them for over eight years running their civic engagement, youth civic engagement program, where we're very involved with, you City Council there, and the young people learn how to participate in that process during the summer.

Well, all year long, they also will put together, the city will say, okay, we have this issue around lighting. And the young people will actually put together a proposal. That's what they do at the end of their graduation this summer. They all put together proposals around things that either the city has acknowledged they need support on or they themselves [00:18:00] have said, you know, one of the things is they had a youth center that they were building in the city, and they're great.

They were wonderful partners, but they were building this, this civic center. Right? And they asked the young people, design what that civic center would look like. 

Jeff Holden: Which makes total sense, because who's going to be the beneficiary? 

Staci Anderson: Correct. 

Jeff Holden: They're going to be young adults and then they're going to be parents with children and 

Staci Anderson: that's 

Jeff Holden: when it's going to be a mature civic center.

Staci Anderson: Right? And when they presented that to the council members, right, as well as the city manager, the city manager came up to me at the end and he goes, right. Right. Right. They created a whole mental health space. They wanted this whole space where people could just feel, you know, like there was, there were services, there were resources.

I said, yeah. That's right. That 

Jeff Holden: speaks volumes, doesn't it? 

Staci Anderson: He was shocked. And that was probably four years ago now. I think it was before COVID. I was just 

Jeff Holden: going to say that would have been pre COVID. That was before. Can you only imagine post? 

Staci Anderson: Exactly. Yes. 

Jeff Holden: You have half the facility as a mental health, mental wellness.

Staci Anderson: Exactly. Right. So there are [00:19:00] things that they would never have even thought of, but now they had young people involved. And what happens for those young people, it's empowering. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Staci Anderson: One young woman Participate in our civic engagement program was part of a wrestling the women's wrestling team in I think it was I don't remember which high school and in Rancho Cordova might have been Cordova high.

She had no mats. There was no space for them I mean it was like they were not given any of the support that the men's was the boys and She said to me at the end of the whole thing. She goes, you know what? I went and I advocated for, with all the things that I had learned to do through civic engagement, I advocated for us to get mats and to get uniforms and we have it.

Jeff Holden: That's awesome. 

Staci Anderson: So, right? I mean, that's the power of the work that we're doing. But the, but for young people to be heard and to feel like their voices matter. I mean, when you talk about feeling hope, sad and hopeless. You don't, you feel empowered when you get to participate in [00:20:00] those sort of things. Well, 

Jeff Holden: and especially when you see somebody listen and enact what you were suggesting.

Which you were providing the, the, the solution to something that they asked your opinion on that they actually engaged and listened. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. Yes. And I think the other piece of that, which I, is my favorite part, I think, is we're all about let's break some of these systems that don't work. These systems don't work, right?

And so a lot of times we also did, we worked with SACOG. around doing a youth advisory board. So we partnered with them on 

Jeff Holden: doing that. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments for the benefit of those 

Staci Anderson: who don't know what that was. very much. I'm glad you did it because I'm like, am I going to say it right?

And they asked us also to develop a youth advisory board. They're running it now by themselves, which is awesome. And, The very first time they came up in front of the, the council, right, the council was like, well, they want to take a few pictures, you know, that, that's what they want to do. They were sitting in the audience and they asked questions that blew the council's minds out of the [00:21:00] water.

It's like, oh yeah, they're not here to play. So I think that's with all of these systems. Well, we also do a youth advisory board, a behavioral health advisory board for the County of Sacramento. So we've worked with the County of Sacramento to put together a behavioral health advisory board run by young people with all the advisory board.

They have to play the same frustrating roles, you know, the rules and regulations of Brown Act and all that stuff. But they are being asked to come to the table and talk about the systems that the County puts together. And You know, they really want their input, so what a difference that makes. Right, right.

When you've got a voice at those tables. 

Jeff Holden: Well, in so many ways too, because not only does it work toward resolution for the problem for that group of students at large, let's say, but it's also giving the students that are engaged in it, that civic opportunity. That's right. To see that it really does work Sometimes.

Not always, but it, [00:22:00] you know, more often than not, it works. Your voice matters. You do have a seat at the table. And because this is to benefit you in the long run, anyhow, you know, we have to look at our youth for what we're doing for the future. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. And I think we have to really give them the tools so that you're not just yelling, you're not just standing there yelling and protesting.

There's a place for protests. I'm not saying there isn't. But you understand, if I talk to so and so, and if I look at what are the return on investment for both ends, right, the earlier that we can teach young people how to negotiate that, the more it's going to be. How much better we 

Jeff Holden: are, 

Staci Anderson: right. And when is it time to blow up that system?

There are times. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Staaci Anderson: Not physically. We don't want that. But, you know, I think that that makes them just so powerful. 

Jeff Holden: It amazes me the, the opportunities that this program is providing for so many students. And you're not just in underserved communities, you're general population. You're everywhere, inclusive of, you know, underserved.

[00:23:00] But I was looking at a wheel I think you had up there in terms of the distribution of the programs. And it was every ethnicity. 

Staci Anderson: Oh yeah. You know, 

Jeff Holden: everybody was represented. Yeah. Yeah. And it didn't have this, this high density in one particular category, which was really neat to see. Yeah. And I would imagine at some point they come together too, whether you're from, you know, Folsom into Elk Grove or, You know, Sac City to, to somewhere in North County.

Staci Anderson: Right. Yeah. Well, a lot through our civic engagement program also allows people to apply on a larger scale so we can do more county wide work. Right? So, yeah. I mean, it just, it builds off of each other. So a lot of times young people also who are in our programs on school sites then move into the role of civic, wanting to do more of the civic engagement pieces.

So, and, and some of those young people are actually on our youth advisory board as well. 

Jeff Holden: Which I really like too because now you've got the, once you've had the exposure, you get a taste of what it's like [00:24:00] and you just want to continue and other friends will see you engaged. And even though that friendship circle may not all want to be doing the same thing, at least they see that there's something productive coming from it as opposed to, you know, a different route that you could go just as easily.

Yep. And there's a confidence that gets built and we've got, you know, great universities here and, and, and great. colleges. So it just feeds all the way through. Yeah. And you said, so 12 to 24, 24 would be the high end. That'd be the college graduate, somebody on the outside of their, their education. Is it always?

in a scholastic setting? 

Staci Anderson: No. 

Jeff Holden: Okay, good. Thank you. Really 

Staci Anderson: the 21 to 24 tend to be young people that are really out of those traditional systems. Okay. That's a lot of, you know, I mean, I think Job Corps is a great example of where a lot, we reach a lot of young people in that, in that site, on that setting. So yeah, we're not really working as much with the college.

That's actually a lot of our staff. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Staci Anderson: Are that age, but yeah. [00:25:00] 

Jeff Holden: And tell me a little bit about the staff. Now you you've got these programs. 33 people, full time employees, that's a good sized staff. Yes, 

Staci Anderson: it is. A lot of fun to manage that 

Jeff Holden: number. What do they look like? What does the staff look like? How are they trained?

What's required outside of, you know, the administrative functions? Yeah. 

Staci Anderson: Well, it's an incredibly diverse group of youth. Not youth, young people, but a lot of them are young. Yes. Right? And, well, we have just a huge range of age ranges. A lot of people come right out of, you know, either high school or college into our programming and a lot of people, they start working within the classroom setting, but they, they have such different experiences of, you know, culturally, their backgrounds and where they come from as well as experiences.

So you know, we were, we were just actually having this conversation the other day. You know, I have people who are, just got out of high school, and, you know, they're, they're working through a lot of times junior college, [00:26:00] and, you know, they don't have as much experience, all the way to people who have, my fund development person is getting her Ph.

D. in education, a lot of people have, you know, master's degrees, which brings In a variety of things, you know, we have marriage and family therapists. We have again, people who are educators, innovation, you know, education, people, we have people who come who have sociology backgrounds, who have, you know, nonprofit background.

I mean, just huge. variety of different people, you know, and their experiences. But I think most important is most of our frontline team were those kids themselves, 

Jeff Holden: right? 

Staci Anderson: They pulled themselves out of a lot of difficult situations. A lot of them are the primary supporter of their families, and that tends to happen a lot.

We have a lot of young people who have worked super hard. They're the first in their families to get a college degree. Right. Or graduate high 

Jeff Holden: school in some cases. 

Staci Anderson: Or graduate high school, exactly. [00:27:00] So they really understand the young people that they're working with and we really try to match up the schools with what makes the most sense.

Like who's going to connect to certain school sites where, you know, certain school sites have a larger Hmong population or have a larger African American population, whatever that looks like. 

Jeff Holden: Right. 

Staci Anderson: Right. We really try to do that. And, and sometimes people who have. Come, you know, came from that high school, are now back at that high school.

Jeff Holden: There's a line that I heard that you are best prepared to serve. 

Staci Anderson: Yes, that's a nice line. Isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Well, the other thing I think that's hugely important is that we do a lot of training. And we do a lot of cross, so a lot of our team members are just unbelievable. And we actually end up going out to different partners and training them up on classroom management.

Ah. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah, 

Staci Anderson: but it's all the experience of our team where they've learned how to do that. And now they're sharing it with, we have teach backs all the time, which I thought was just a [00:28:00] great idea of our, 

Jeff Holden: which is, 

Staci Anderson: which is literally sitting in a group that our team comes together and then they show, okay, this is how I did curriculum on communication, and then they'll show it to the team, and then the team will teach it back to them also.

So that there's a lot of, oh yeah, you know, this is a thing that you could do that would make it even more exciting. Or within that classroom setting, maybe you want to do it this way. So it's always peer to peer learning, 

Jeff Holden: which is nice because it's not just best practices down. I like teach back because as you were saying, I'm thinking, okay, this sounds like best practices until you said it's coming back up.

Staci Anderson: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: It's, it's a 360. Yep. 

Staci Anderson: Because that's where you learn. Right. And when you're in the classroom, I mean, it's a crazy place to be even more now than, than ever before. Like you just don't know what's going to happen. So how do you manage that and what are the different issues and, and, you know, a lot of kids being really hurt and I feeling isolated and, you know, it's, it's hard to be in those [00:29:00] classes.

Jeff Holden: Let's take a short break from our discussion with Stacey Anderson of Pro Youth, and we'll return to learn of the tremendously collaborative machine this agency has become. I was in the media business for over 35 years and had the great privilege of working with Runyon Saltzman, RSE, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations.

We collaborated on many different campaigns, but their commitment to the nonprofit sector hasn't changed since their founder Gene Runyon started the agency. Over many years and many campaigns, Runyon Saltzman has been committed to improving lives by tackling California's most challenging issues. Guided by research informed strategies and insightful, creative solutions, RSE develops innovative communications campaigns that raise awareness, Educate and reduce stigma in diverse communities throughout our state and beyond.

To learn more about RSE, visit rs e. com. 

Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CAP Trust in our [00:30:00] Sacramento office. I specialize in working with local non profits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public non profit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment.

In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement all term investments. If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, scottThomas@captrust.com. 

Jeff Holden: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many nonprofit agencies in our community.

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com. Let's talk a little bit about the collaboration, the people that you do work with, because you touch so many different organizations. And that's a big part of the program. We are trying to connect people to where somebody maybe didn't know that there was an organization that is almost in the same space or could be really supportive to their cause if they knew.

Who do you work with predominantly and then just the scope of connectivity? So 

Staci Anderson: the story goes, because there is a story related to. So the other bucket is the collaboration, which is the Youth and Family Collective. which started about eight years ago. And, and really that was the idea. So at the center of everything we do, it's putting young people first.

One organization can only serve so many kids. You know, we, we serve about 3, 000. That's a lot of kids. And that's increased over the, the years that we've grown. But how, I think my, not I think, my constant frustration was that we were all fighting over money that didn't exist. In the youth [00:32:00] space, there isn't very much money, right?

And so I really was tired of the fighting. And we were so busy chasing small dollars that we weren't going to have a large impact and young people, this was before COVID. So I just started bringing people together in the community, lots of different nonprofit organizations that big brothers, big sisters, reading partners, you know, LGBTQ center.

And we just started talking about how do we do business differently? And we're all just going to get naked, right? And we're going to share what our. fears are, what our thoughts are, who our partners are, how do we redo this space? And through that, it was about three years of just kind of, what are we going to be and how do we do this?

And organically once COVID hit, I had really been working also with corporations and government entities, specifically the city of Sacramento. I'd had somebody on, on coming to those meetings. COVID hit and now [00:33:00] all of a sudden we had, you know, a lot of money through ARPA, so funding, right, CARES Act dollars, and a desperate need to get money out into the community.

So we partnered with the city through our collective model and we brought in, we've now brought in over 72 different partners that we've been able to work with. So the goal was really In 

Jeff Holden: addition to the school systems. 

Staci Anderson: Oh, yeah, that's a totally different foundation that yeah, and that's so there are two ways we do our work.

One is we're directly our team is directly delivering programming. The second is through the collective, right, which is bringing in bigger dollars. And then pushing money out to smaller organizations that really are trusted in those communities. 

Jeff Holden: And saving them the trouble of all the grant writing and all the presentation.

Staci Anderson: The stuff they can't do. 

Jeff Holden: Documentation that they can't do, right? Because you can do one or the other, but you can't do both. 

Staci Anderson: And in that process, we've been able to help support [00:34:00] build in real, I mean, I hate the word capacity building because, you know. Everybody tries to do it, but it's, it's not going to happen.

It's the phrase. It's a phrase, right? But we've been able to really teach them how to do data input. We've given them the tools to be able to do that. So they walk away from a project that's a collective project. So collectively, during the summer, In 2020 or 2021, we were able to serve 900 young people in three months, get out 1.

2 million, right? With this wonderful service learning project that was 20 hours of learning a different curriculum around different topic areas, and 20 hours of giving back to your community, and those young people earn 500 each. 

Jeff Holden: We actually got something. They got 

Staci Anderson: money for it. Yes. Talk a 

Jeff Holden: concept. Well, peers and next year we got to do this again.

If it's funded. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Well, and we've been able to through multiple funding sources, we've been able to continue doing those [00:35:00] projects where we're training young people up on different, different topics, but it's a collective it's our, our thing is how do we take a. Project like that and work with community partners that are trusted.

So now we're reaching way more youth together And we're building the capacity of these smaller organizations to where they want to be built Many of them are volunteer based and they don't want to be anything more than that Right, but they're working with a group of youth that nobody else can work with nobody else.

They don't trust anyone else So that has been and also the other thing that's happened for a lot of those organizations is they have data now They can go out and do fundraising. 

Jeff Holden: I was just going to say, they're learning from the experience of everybody's input. Yep. With the collective. Yep. 

Staci Anderson: Exactly. You know, imagine 

Jeff Holden: that even you can probably have subsets of the collective that can get together for particular situations where it may be a more niche service that they're providing.

Staci Anderson: Yep. It's a model that we have designed that has amazing tools that we really want to take out into other [00:36:00] communities because that's really where it's at. If we can work together. I mean, we have. brought in over six million dollars for years. We've pushed that out to the community. 

Jeff Holden: Is that for the collective?

Staci Anderson: That's just the collective. 

Jeff Holden: That's amazing. 

Staci Anderson: And 

Jeff Holden: you 62 or 72 did you say? 

Staci Anderson: 72 nonprofits. That's what I thought. Yeah 

Jeff Holden: and growing. I mean in terms of the organization. 100 is not that far away. Yeah. In the scheme of things, because they don't come in dribbles and ones and twos. They come in, once one shares, you probably get three, four, or five in a particular area.

Well, it's, 

Staci Anderson: yep. And in the projects that we're doing, they apply. We make it a very simple application process, and we're really supportive of wanting to make it as easy as possible so that they can, You know, actually deliver the workout to their youth. So, you know, we've just had great results around that.

Jeff Holden: That's wonderful. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: That may be. And you had that number right off the top of your head. The fact that you're aware of that. That's, I mean, a lot of the organization we speak with. They rely on, on other organizations as well, but nothing to the extent of [00:37:00] that, you know, short of a, you know, an impact foundry that's servicing as a resource center.

I mean, you, you are very similar. And I think there's another, another collective for foster children, the Alliance up in Placer County or something like that, where they do the same, the same thing, but they, they save all that administrative grief that so many organizations have to deal with. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Well, and it just is gotten worse.

I mean, it's super. I mean, most of our funding is federal and, and I don't, I'm not even complaining about the federal. It's more of the local state and all of those, you know, state agencies, county agents. I mean, the backup, even the districts now, the backup documentation, the percent of overhead that they, you know, you can only do, you know, 10 percent indirect if you work with the state.

Now there's some, you know, things that, that California Association of Nonprofits is trying to push, but that's insane. It's, I mean, so we're being asked to do a lot of things that a business would do, but they don't treat [00:38:00] us like a business. No business would take a 10 percent indirect. Now we filed for a federal indirect rate.

Now we have 21%, but that's, that's insane. You know, to manage any of these projects is super complicated, super, the, the back end administration. Which 

Jeff Holden: just, it just goes to show the benefit of a collective of sorts, where somebody can handle all that so you can do what you do best. Yep. That's not it. Nope.

And as most of us, administration is not the thing we want. We want to get caught up on we're here for a purpose, not that. 

Staci Anderson: Yep. Yep. Well, and even applying for 501c3s and staying up to date on those things. I mean, you, to even receive federal money, you have to make sure that all those things are in place, which we actually help our other, the smaller nonprofits be able to do that too.

Jeff Holden: Yeah. And that's where that tenure comes in because you've seen all of it. Yes. For so many years. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. Yes. 

Jeff Holden: Let's talk about the funding. How are you funded? And you're a reasonably sized organization, somewhere in the five million dollar range? 

Staci Anderson: We are now [00:39:00] five, over five million dollars. Congratulations.

Thank you. Well, that's good and bad. No, it's, it's, it's amazing. We went from More is 

Jeff Holden: better, I'm sure. 

Staci Anderson: More, yeah, it's good. Well, you know, you can build out a team that 

Jeff Holden: way. 

Staci Anderson: And I think that the organizations, when you're like, before we were about an 800, 000 organization, You have about 13 people. You never have then what you need for your communications, which you need for your marketing.

You never have fund development. And, you know, there are multiple strategies around fund development. So yeah, so we're a bigger organization now and most of our money is federal. And the thing that I always say is, We're bringing a lot of money into this community. And I think that's the other thing that people don't talk enough about.

Jeff Holden: I totally agree with you. The value of non profits to a community is so significant. You know, and the fact that Sacramento has 13, 000 ish of them. Not many are, are Totally volunteer. They're not siphoning funds off, but I mean, if it was 6, 000 that are using funded organizations, that's [00:40:00] a lot of money. 

Staci Anderson: Yep.

Jeff Holden: That's a lot of money. And there's a figure for the state and what the value is. I don't know it off the top of my head, but it's huge. Billions. You know, it's a huge entity, it's a huge business sector and we need to look at it and treat it as a business sector and, and give it those benefits to, to what business looks like as opposed to thinking it's something different because your job is every bit as difficult as somebody who's running a for profit business and in some cases more so because of the documentation that you have to have.

Staci Anderson: Yep. Absolutely. And the, you know, If you're, if you look too together, if you don't, and we, I was just having this conversation the other day, people want you to be very, you know, kind of pathetic on some level, right? I mean, they want to help if you don't look like you need help. Yeah, 

Jeff Holden: they don't want that.

Well, you're good. You're good. You don't need our money. 

Staci Anderson: You know, so as you get bigger, also as an organization, right? Well, why would I donate to that? You seem to, but I think the bigger conversation really around the unrestricted money, which is Mm-Hmm. [00:41:00] everybody had, and you know, that's the, the magic.

Right. Right. But I think that there, the world's between unrestricted dollars and the nonprofit world is, is is horrible. Mm-Hmm. . And, and I think the unrestricted, those dollars are really hidden. And they're not, you have to dig, dig, dig, and really have whole different relationships to be able to get to the money, you know, to connect those two entities.

Jeff Holden: Do you find that the local donations tend to be more flexible, more unrestricted, obviously because your federal stuff is going to have criteria around it? No. No, 

Staci Anderson: a lot of the local funding is, you know, I mean some is, is, is. Great. I mean, we have some really, I have to say, like, we have a magnificent partnership with Sutter.

Kaiser has always been really, really supportive also in the work that we're doing. So, you know, I think that there are some foundations too, and that is Sutter Foundation. So, I feel like they give us, I mean, there's still, Sutter's and Kaiser are really focused on our, our Mind16 programming. [00:42:00] And they're really great to work with.

But, um, You know, we have a lot of contracts in schools. We have contracts with county. We have con And Do 

Jeff Holden: those look like fee for service then? 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Yes. I mean, they're more of a fee for service. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. 

Jeff Holden: Good. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. Yeah. But that means that you have to bill out and they don't give you any indirect.

Right? A lot of times. Okay. So it's really, you know, you're in the class. This is a dollar amount. If you're not there that day, that, you know, I mean, it's, But at the back end detail, locally, I think on some level, federal is, has been, knock on wood, but has been much better only because we also can get our money, the minute we deliver the service, we can bill and get money back into our account.

When you're dealing with all these other entities, you can spend, you know, I mean, everybody complains about this, right? Cash flow. So it, months, months and months, or people want you to start programming immediately, but you get no money. So this is a lot of California Association of Nonprofits is [00:43:00] working really diligently at the state level to try to change some of these things and working with the government entities.

But they're no joke. 

Jeff Holden: Let's talk about need. If money were no object. What would it look like? What would the organization look like? You know, 

Staci Anderson: I think without money being an object, and I'm just going to say I'm going to do exactly the same thing anyway, because we started the collective with no money.

Nobody's ever supported that effort. So, my goal as an organization is to take what we're doing, our model, statewide and national. With money, right, if it was no object, we would just do it at a faster pace. Like, I would be able to really look at it, at models where how do you take the, the YFC, the Youth and Family Collective model, How do you expand that across the nation?

How do you take our Mind 1 6? Because the, our Mind 1 6 model is really about building community members ability to deliver the curriculum. 

Jeff Holden: And both are scalable. Both are. The collective and the Mind [00:44:00] 1 6. 

Staci Anderson: Completely scalable. So if I had unlimited dollars right now, that's exactly what I would do, is I would build a team to help us do it at a faster pace.

Because I think the urgency right now, is incredible. Like, we can't even begin to meet the crisis. 

Jeff Holden: Have you seen interest from other communities outside of the Sacramento region? 

Staci Anderson: Oh, absolutely. Oh, yes. Our Mind One Six curriculum in particular, a lot of school did. We're actually starting a partnership right now with the Sac County Office of Ed.

I mean, we work with them on a number of things, and there we're going to be training up some of their peer to peer leaders that they have on school campuses, training them up on the curriculum, but statewide. We've had lots, and, and, Oregon. We've partnered with NAMI Yolo County and trained up their staff.

And the 

Jeff Holden: benefit NAMI is? 

Staci Anderson: National Association of Mental Illness, I think, is what it stands for. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Staci Anderson: And they're a national organization. So one of our big goals is to partner at Girl Scouts here. We're working with them. To really, how do we train [00:45:00] up leaders and, you know, a variety of different people, school counselors, whoever, on this curriculum?

So, the need is there. It's almost scary, right? Because 

Jeff Holden: Because you can see what it could be, but if it was, what the demand would look like. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah, and the harder part is finding people that are going to say, Oh yeah, count me in. I'm going to write this check and we're going to move this forward. But that's really, we know what that looks like.

And if I had unrestricted money right now, I would just be doing that as at a much faster pace. 

Jeff Holden: And I want people to hear that because you may get some interest. As a result of this program. Yes, I would love that. Because it's not stuck in just Sacramento, it's in the ether. 

Staci Anderson: Yes, yeah. And you know, and I always say, what's our ultimate goal?

Build community capacity. We cannot, they're not, we're never going to have enough behavioral health specialists, counselor per ratio per kid, you know, we're just not going to have that. And if you don't build a capacity of communities and young people, [00:46:00] forget it. 

Jeff Holden: Right. 

Staci Anderson: Right? 

Jeff Holden: Now, back to reality. Yes. We, we do have funding limitations.

What's the greatest need? Where do you see the greatest need for, for funds at this point? 

Staci Anderson: Yeah, really the greatest need is for us to be able to, I think, build our Mind16 program up at a much faster pace. We're doing it and I feel really confident about that, but that to me is the biggest. That's where we need our support.

It kind of 

Jeff Holden: comes full, full circle about the, the mental health, you know, one out of six students and it probably isn't improving, especially post COVID as these kids realize I got a gap in here of social interaction. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: And I think we can see what caused a lot of it. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: But what does it look like coming out of it?

Staci Anderson: Right. Well, and I'll go back to our stat. 46 percent feel sad and hopeless. Of 11th graders. I mean, that's a horrible statistic. Right. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. Right. The hopeless one is, is that, that word right there is such a striking [00:47:00] contrast to what life should be at 11th grade. 

Staci Anderson: And young people come out of our program and we measure this across, we have a really great evaluation team, 

Jeff Holden: 88 

Staci Anderson: percent of young people come out of our program saying, I feel hopeful.

Jeff Holden: Wonderful. You know, you have something that I saw on the website and it's reports. You have accountability. Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. Cause not everybody shows their. performance the way you do in what I saw on the site. 

Staci Anderson: So for 18, 19, 20, actually, as long as I've been there 22 years, pro had started really building out what an evaluation team internally, which was, you probably, you don't find, that's very progressive.

You do not find a lot of nonprofits with that. And we now have an incredible team of people who that's All they do is they, we collect all our data from all our programming across the board. We measure certain things with every program, same core things about feeling engaged [00:48:00] and hopeful and all those sorts of things.

So it's a lot and we can really pull a lot of information out and tell you. about our young people, the diversity of our young people, the background experiences of a lot of our young people, and then what our programs are actually doing for them. So, and that data is available to us. Like, I look at that data on a fairly regular basis.

Jeff Holden: And you've been doing it long enough. You can see trending. 

Staci Anderson: Oh. And movement and 

Jeff Holden: what it looks like over time. Yeah. And I'm sure it's changed considerably. Yeah, 

Staci Anderson: yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Not necessarily to our, our advantage. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah, that's for sure. 

Jeff Holden: Is there anything that outside of the, you know, the actual dollars and cents of the organization that you see as potential challenges down the line as you look to next year or two years out?

Staci Anderson: You know, I think the challenge is just always trying to keep up with, you know, a lot of the restrictions of these systems that we work with. They just, they, they're [00:49:00] getting more and more complicated. I think that that's one of the challenges is having the flexibility to really do what we need to do as an organization and respond fast enough to what young people need.

We're always fighting, you know, I mean, God bless school districts, but There's so many things within those systems that make it difficult to be able to deliver programming the way we need to. I mean, I think we've done, because we have such good working relationships, I think that's, that's, you know, gone well.

But I think that that's always, it's fighting through these just levels of funding restrictions and, you know, school system restrictions and, you know, it's, and I feel like people's attempt to try to fix things, a lot of times they actually make it worse. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Staci Anderson: You know, and as money gets tight again, which it is, that's where you go back into this very, you know, the most wonderful thing about COVID was nobody knew what to do.

It was like a candy shop for innovators. So it was like, Oh, [00:50:00] okay. Nobody knows what to do. This is my favorite time. And we all could come together from different systems and just break down those barriers. We came up with some wonderful solutions and then all the money, so all, you know, all the money's going away.

And that's when people get nasty, tight with their dollars, competitive. and all of those things. So, I see that. Well, you had that CARES Act funding. 

Jeff Holden: It was like the bubble in the snake's belly. You know, it just came in and everybody got a piece of it. And all of a sudden, now it's dissipating. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. And 

Jeff Holden: people are lost without it.

Staci Anderson: Absolutely. Yeah. It created a, our stomachs were bloated after that. And, and our expectations of, yes, it should be a few hundred thousand. It should be a million to be able to, to do and deliver this program. Yes, it can. You know, when you start to ask for money like that, now funders get mad at you. What are you thinking?

I'm thinking that you really need 1. 2 million to actually deliver this out to the community, right? How dare you ask for such large sums. But I think that that's, to me, that's going to be a lot of the challenge now is systems [00:51:00] wanting to go back into what they were. But there's plenty of money, as I said that.

There's plenty of money. It's just, we need to, we need to change the way we're. Properly distribute. Yeah, exactly. And change the way we're doing things. Yes. Yep. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. And, and, and we don't want people to hear plenty of money and cease No, there's plenty of money, but we need more. We don't have Yeah. we need, we, we still need more of it.

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Well, there's money that we are not having access to. Yes. Yes. You know, and I think that's always the, you know, the barrier, right? 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I've heard this from several organizations too. Money isn't really the issue. It, it is individually for this, this specific either program that you wanna roll out or the individual entity.

But the money's here. It's, it's. In many cases, just misallocated. 

Staci Anderson: Yes. A hundred percent. And 

Jeff Holden: some of it's being burned. It's just wasted. Oh, 

Staci Anderson: just huge amounts. Huge amounts. If, if somebody tells me they need to do another report on the state of young people. I, I could be very dangerous , and people call us all the time.

Can we do [00:52:00] a, a listening circle? Can we do a No. The young people have told you 28 million times. Yeah. That the answer is not gonna change and we don't need more money doing that. But this town, because it's so policy and political, they just wanna do reports. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Staci Anderson: So they throw a truckload of money into doing that instead of the actual delivery, the work.

Oh, okay. Money went to the service 

Jeff Holden: and the provision, it would be so much better. Oh, 

Staci Anderson: yes. It makes me crazy. 

Jeff Holden: I'm glad you said that. Yep. Good. 

Staci Anderson: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: So I want to read something as we wrap up here, especially because we're just talking about hope and one of your lines, it's, it's your tagline is hope rises here.

Yeah. This is right on the, on the website. Pro use mission is to inspire, educate and mobilize young people to build a healthier future for themselves, their families and their communities. We envision a future where all young people recognize their value, have access to support and opportunities and believe in their power to be change agents in their community.

That's a wonderful, you know, mission statement, purpose, and vision as well, because it, it really is. It [00:53:00] looks forward. 

Staci Anderson: That's right. 

Jeff Holden: And I applaud you for, for what you're doing and just the envelopment you've got with so many tentacles into so many places in the community that service youth. 

Staci Anderson: Thank you. So 

Jeff Holden: thank you.

Staci Anderson: Yeah. Thank you very much. Yes. For that feedback. I think that's exactly right. And we are in a hurry. We need to do this. 

Jeff Holden: More. Right. So, for everybody that's listening, we are in a hurry, let's get, the fun's coming this way. 

Staci Anderson: Fun's coming. Stop with the nonsense paperwork. Write that check whenever you're ready.

Yeah, exactly. 

Jeff Holden: Stacey, thank you. 

Staci Anderson: Thank you so much. I really appreciate this opportunity. Yeah.

Jeff Holden: Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help. If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please consider Please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share.

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