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Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment

Office of Youth Development

Youth, Parks, & Community Enrichment

Office of Youth Development

Welcome! The Office of Youth Development’s vision is that all young people, regardless of background, are provided the highest-quality youth development experiences. To better ensure these experiences result in positive outcomes, the City and its partners strive to provide youth with programs and services that integrate research-based youth development supports, opportunities, and social justice principles while centering the youth mantra, “nothing about us, without us.”

The Office of Youth Development (OYD) is charged with refining, developing, and promoting the City’s overall strategic vision to achieve citywide youth development goals in accord with the Youth Plan.

Youth-Serving Organizational Resiliency Fund

Grant Period: March 2023 – March 2025

The Resiliency Fund supports eligible nonprofits who are currently providing direct services to children or youth (birth through 24 years old) and are interested in strengthening their organizational capacity, as well as the broader youth-serving ecosystem.

The Resiliency Fund provides successful applicants with a suite of resources, including general operating support grants as well extensive individual and cohort-based capacity strengthening supports and opportunities to increase their organizational resiliency and build a community of practice amongst Sacramento youth-serving organizations.

Applicants completed a preliminary Organizational Self-Assessment, intended to a) help their organization identify its strengths and vision for stability and growth, and b) help OYD design customized resources and opportunities to support grantees with executing their vision both individually and collectively.

The Grant Period runs April 2023 – April 2025. Look at the complete list of Resilience Fund Grantees.

Citywide Youth Development plan & Framework for Children and Youth Programs ("Youth Plan")

The Youth Plan guides the City in the design, operations and evaluation of its children and youth program investments, with a concerted application of resources toward young people in greatest need. The Youth Plan outlines goals from cradle-to-career, as well as a framework for integrating youth program quality at scale through common evidence-informed practices.

The Youth Plan framework summarizes over a half century of research that shows only high-quality programs improve youth development outcomes. To support continuous quality improvement, the City is committed to using data, assessment, and stakeholder input to inform strategic investments in equitable and accessible pathways for young people to succeed while creating clearer linkages across youth-serving systems and programs.

OYD’s Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) team broadly supports the design and application of the City’s first evaluation, learning and continuous quality improvement system across all youth investments while centering racial equity and social justice. This comprehensive CQI system operates on multiple levels - participant, program, and systems – working with youth and community to improve outcomes in all three areas.

Highlights from our work

OYD contributes to the growth and development of Sacramento youth through the following programs, partnerships, and investments.

#SacTownYouthNights: Youth Drop-in Events - Grant Program

#SacTownYouthNights events take place on Friday and Saturday nights in priority neighborhoods across the city and offer young people safe spaces to engage in a variety of activities that are positive, productive, and fun including recreation and sports, skill-building, career exploration, arts and culture, games, dances and more.

The Office of Youth Development (OYD) released the #SacTownYouthNights $1.3 million request for proposals in July 2022. Twenty-seven youth-serving community-based organizations were selected to plan and host bi-monthly events that are youth-led, adult-supported and designed for 30-50 or more youth, ages 12 – 24. This grant program advances OYD’s goal to increase spaces that support belonging, promote community, and connect youth to trusted adult mentors.

For more information, please check out this City Express article

Sacramento Youth Development Plan Funding - Grant Program

The Sacramento Youth Development Plan Fund was designed with a set aside of one-time mid-year general operating funding for youth-serving programs that align with the City’s Youth Plan. Rigorous stakeholder engagement uncovered four areas of need and Community-Based Organizations were invited to apply for programs that fell into one of these areas: Mental Wellness, Workforce Development, Academic Support, and Violence Intervention.

#SacYouthWorks

Since the summer of 2020, #SacYouthWorks has provided almost 2,000 youth hope for the future, places to belong, and paid opportunities to learn practical skills, serve their community, and explore career goals.

OYD partners with PRO Youth & Families as part of their Youth & Family Collective, to leverage the power of Sacramento’s youth provider network. Through the #SacYouthWorks (#SYW) program, partners engage cohorts of young people (ages 14-18), in 40 hours of programming using the following framework:

Connect youth to trusted mentors and existing service projects that respond to community needs due to COVID-19 and/or provide youth with other types of applied work-based learning opportunities to meet this component
Learn critical work readiness skills
Earn a stipend

#SYW partners receive program and administrative-support funding to connect youth to trusted peers and adults, increase work-based learning skills, create pathways to career opportunities and engage youth to address community needs.

The #SYW experience provides critical learning and addresses social and emotional needs by intentionally connecting youth to trusted adults, their peers, community service, and work-readiness and mental health training and support.

“I was struggling as a 17 year old to get a job during the pandemic and then after…doing the [#SacYouthWorks] program I got offered a job because of my hard work during the program. It most definitely helped me financially and with responsibility…” – #SYW Youth Participant from Daughters of Zion Enterpryz

Youth Link Sac Website

OYD designed and launched YouthLinkSac.org as a centralized online hub to promote Sacramento’s vast network of youth services so that youth and their families could easily locate virtual opportunities, support, and resources during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Youth Link was designed with two main goals in mind; as the community need for Goal 1 decreases, Goal 2 will ramp up:

Goal #1: To promote virtual Sacramento youth programs and activities, as well as important COVID-19 resources for youth and adult allies that support them.
Goal #2: To lift up Sacramento youth-serving organizations, making their services easier to locate for youth and their communities to come together stronger.

Our Team

The Office of Youth Development is made up of professionals with experience across disciplines and diversity of backgrounds coming together in service of Sacramento children and youth.

Valerie Varela
(she/her/hers)
Data, Evaluation & Learning Specialist
(916) 808-7849
vrvarela@cityofsacramento.org

Kevin Daniel
(he/him/his)
Community Outreach & Strategic Partnerships Analyst
(916) 808-7845
Kldaniel@cityofsacramento.org

Laura Littlefield
(they/them/theirs OR she/her/hers)
Grants Administration & Management Analyst
(916) 808-7217
lllittlefield@cityofsacramento.org

Marissa Eng
(she/her/hers)
Organizational & Professional Development Analyst
(916) 808-7866
meng@cityofsacramento.org

Theresa Nunery
(she/her/hers)
Administrative Technician
(916) 808-1187
tnunery@cityofsacramento.org

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