The San Diego Women’s Foundation (SDWF), a supporting organization of the San Diego Foundation (SDF), has given over $225,000 to address the youth mental health crisis in the county.
On June 28, SDWF announced the three recipients of their Cycle 24 Community Partner Grant, a grant totaling $225,000 in unrestricted and multi-year funding. This year, SDWF has awarded $75,000 grants to Mending Matters, Monarch School Project, and Social Advocates for Youth San Diego.
“Through our research and conversations with nonprofit staff, we learned that local health professionals report 28 times more children needing psychiatric health than ten years ago,” said Stephanie Cook, SDWF Executive Director. “Factors like stigma, inadequate access to services and the lingering impacts of COVID have exacerbated what is considered by many to be a mental health crisis facing youth in our community.”
Founded in 2000, the SDWF, an organization with over 200 members, has contributed over $5.3 million in grants which have been awarded to 118 nonprofit organizations and impacted thousands of people. Each fall, the SDWF’s Discovery, Inquiry and Guidelines committee comprehensively researches topics, narrowing them down until they find a cause where their grant funding can have the most significant impact.
Mending Matters provides mental health services to middle school students, including individual and group therapy, classroom workshops and other cost-free programming, with the goal that one day every child will have free access to mental health services in schools. With the SDWF grant, Mending Matters expects to reach over 4,600 students over the term.
Monarch School Project is a K-12 public school for students who are homeless, at risk of being homeless, or impacted by homelessness. The school provides services including crisis communication, solution focus therapy and other trauma-informed services. Monarch plans to use the grant to provide more comprehensive mental health services for 75 unhoused students experiencing complex trauma.
Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) San Diego is a nonprofit that works with schools, community organizations, and local government to provide school-based mental health programs and provide cost-free therapeutic services to 60 students across five middle schools. SAY plans to use the grant to expand on evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies to address mental health disparities.
“Our members are proud to be channeling much needed funds into these three organizations to provide quality mental health support services to youth from under-resourced communities in San Diego County,” Cook said.
