Youth ALIVE!

Watch and share this inspiring video highlighting the vital work of Youth ALIVE!, a grantee of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education (powered by The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention).  Youth ALIVE! works to break the cycle of violence through a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, intervention, healing, and advocacy. Our visionary leader Joseph Griffin, DrPH is featured. The Center’s grant will help Youth ALIVE! address the lingering impacts of Oakland’s spike in violence during the pandemic and support our efforts to empower young people impacted by violence to heal themselves and transform their communities. Please like and share!

It was great being in the studio this week with our friends Nisha Kadaba and Taymar Quezada on the #SocialImpactTeam at PagerDuty amplifying the lifesaving work of Youth ALIVE!, which was selected as an #ImpactAccelerator Grantee. Stay tuned for the upcoming video about YA!'s use case as told by the incomparable Paris Davis, MPA,CNP and Antoine Towers.

Excited to share this video from fellow Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education grantee from Dr. LJ Punch and the Bullet Related Injury Clinic out of St. Louis. Inspiring, innovative work.

Today is a very special day. Youth ALIVE!'s Associate Director, John Torres, LMFT has been with Youth ALIVE! for 15 years! JT, you’ve been absolutely crucial in shaping how we address violence prevention, intervention, and healing. Your cool head and sharp strategies always make sure we’re looking out for our community first and foremost. However, it’s not just YA! as an org that you've helped grow. You’ve inspired each of us personally, to continue growing. Working with you has been nothing short of awesome. JT, we just couldn’t do this work without you! Here’s to this incredible milestone and the many more ahead. Huge thanks, JT, for everything you bring to our team.

Happy 5 Years to our Policy and Advocacy Director, Gabriel Garcia! About Gabe, our Executive Director Joseph Griffin, DrPH shared: "Gabe's unwavering commitment to pushing for policy changes that make our communities safer and strengthen our direct service efforts is nothing short of inspiring. Gabe has a knack for making sure Youth ALIVE! is heard in important conversations, especially in places where our voices typically aren't heard. The strides Gabe has made in our policy and advocacy work have blown us all away, lifting us to levels beyond what we even dreamed of. We truly value Gabe's hard work and are thrilled that he is part of our team." Here's to many more, Gabe!

Always happy to connect with our partners at the University of California, San Francisco Wraparound Project. So much of the work we do to prevent violence is regional and we can only do this work if we do it together. The Wraparound Project and Youth ALIVE! Are two of the founding member programs of The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. Hospital-based violence intervention programs like ours are evidence-based public health approaches to violence prevention, intervention, and healing.

We would like to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to outstanding Youth ALIVE! Board Member and tireless champion for Oakland, John Bliss!

Following the Surgeon General's declaration that gun violence is indeed a public health issue, KPIX | CBS San Francisco/Bay Area's Jose Martinez interviewed Youth ALIVE!'s Director of Development and Communications Lauren Greenberg about what Oakland's community based organization for violence prevention, intervention, and healing is doing to disrupt the cycle of violence in The Town following the tragic shooting during Oakland's Juneteenth celebration. "We're working on it. We're healing people. We're preventing violence. We're saving hundreds or thousands of lives every year," said Greenberg. "We're upset, we're saddened, this is our city. Juneteenth is an important holiday. It should be a time of jubilation, but instead folks were scattering." But we do what we always do in these situations: our folks are out in the community calming tensions, connecting survivors to resources, and providing opportunities for our youth to prevent violence and build a thriving future. Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/gAXHiJkG

Thank you Megan Ranney for lifting up this critical report. US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared what we at Youth ALIVE! have known all along: #gunviolence is a #publichealth problem and thus must be addressed as such. AND, it's something we can fix. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gvimjjsR

Thank you for recognizing the innovative, lifesaving work of Youth ALIVE! National Offices of Violence Prevention Network (NOVPN), particularly during #GunViolenceAwarenessMonth.