Children’s Health Council

“With a shared vision and strong mission alignment, we are forging a pathway toward more equitable access to mental healthcare, fostering deep community partnerships, and driving systemic change to improve the health and well-being of local youth and families.”

— Ramsey Khasho, PsyD, Chief Clinical Officer

One in five adolescents have a mental health condition, and suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24. The stigma surrounding mental health, lack of awareness, and limited access to mental health services have contributed to the inadequate treatment of mental health issues among teens.

Children’s Health Council was founded in 1953, based on the vision of pediatrician Dr. Esther B. Clark, to establish a place where children and families in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties could access therapy services from caring experts, regardless of cost. Since its founding, the organization has served over one million children, teens, and young adults across the Peninsula and throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

With the help of multi-year funding over the last decade from Sand Hill Foundation, Children’s Health Council has expanded equitable access to mental health services through the Teen Mental Health Initiative and the Ravenswood Wellness Partnership. As part of these efforts, the agency has leveraged its skills, expertise, and network to bring together therapists, educators, parents, nonprofits, hospitals, social workers, and youth to develop a web of mental health support throughout the region. The expansion has increased the affordability and availability of culturally appropriate, evidence-based therapeutic services, developed school partnerships to establish mental wellness programs and increase referrals for care, and helped remove stigma through community-wide education and collaboration. In honor of CHC’s 70th Anniversary in 2023, Sand Hill Foundation committed $1.5 million toward subsidized services for families living with low-income who would not otherwise be able to access mental health support.

Sand Hill Foundation’s longtime partnership with Children’s Health Council strives to meet the wellness needs of adolescents, young adults, and their families throughout our community—building resilience, hope, and healing.

Nuestra Casa

“Nuestra Casa’s collaboration with Sand Hill Foundation embodies a shared commitment to environmental justice and community empowerment. Through the Foundation’s support, we have provided tangible improvements in residential air quality for our families and deepened our community’s understanding of critical environmental issues”

— Miriam Yupanqui, Executive Director

Founded by local community members in 2002, Nuestra Casa began as a safety net service provider for low-income communities in East Palo Alto as the community welcomed an influx of new Spanish-speaking residents. Ever since, Nuestra Casa has helped community members access critical services and flex their inherent leadership. Nuestra Casa brings this mission to life through community education, leadership development, and community-driven advocacy.

Residents of communities disproportionately affected by climate change have historically been left out of environmental planning and advocacy efforts. Nuestra Casa is changing that dynamic by putting the community into the drivers’ seat of environmental justice efforts. Unincorporated North Fair Oaks suffers from a lack of tree canopy, causing unsafe summertime temperatures, sea water inundation due to its location below sea level on the Bay, and one of the highest pollution burdens in California. While Sand Hill Foundation has a long history of supporting environmental causes, a new focus in 2021 on local climate change solutions created room for new partnerships and investments.

Nuestra Casa received a multi-year grant in 2023 from Sand Hill Foundation to expand their environmentally-focused work from East Palo Alto into North Fair Oaks. The initial phase of the project involved understanding the magnitude of different environmental issues facing the community. That data was then used to create a community education program that included an annual Environmental Justice Academy. This multi-week course covers climate justice; water justice, including where local water is sourced from; air pollution, including what is in the air locally; and sea level rise and flooding mitigation practices and adaptation policies.

Since the inception of Nuestra Casa’s North Fair Oaks project, 1,800 community members have participated in policy and city planning discussions around climate change mitigation and environmental justice issues and 43 concerned community members enrolled in the Environmental Justice Academy in 2024.

Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County

“Together with Sand Hill Foundation we’re supporting families on their journey to economic stability by ensuring the safety-net systems meant to help them are working.”

— M. Stacey Hawver, Executive Director

Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County (Legal Aid SMC) knows our entire community is stronger when everyone has a home, economic security, and essential public services. Legal Aid pursues this vision by using the law to enforce the legal rights of low-income residents in civil cases. From helping survivors of domestic abuse get legal protection against their abusers, to fielding thousands of calls annually from renters at risk of becoming homeless, Legal Aid SMC makes sure the law works for all local residents.

While the legal system is a bedrock of American democracy, the right to representation by a lawyer is limited to serious criminal matters. In California, this right is not guaranteed in many life-changing circumstances, from education and family conflicts to workers’ rights and housing disputes. In some instances, those with access to and knowledge of the legal system may prevail regardless of the facts of the case. This is where Legal Aid SMC evens the playing field by providing free legal education, training, and advice to low-income communities, as well as litigating on behalf of those communities when necessary.

Sand Hill Foundation’s first grant to Legal Aid SMC was in 1998 to support a domestic violence prevention program. This work formed the heart of the relationship for nearly a decade in keeping with Sand Hill Foundation’s goal to stabilize families facing hardship. In 2017, when San Mateo County’s immigrant community was facing rapidly evolving immigration policy and aggressive enforcement activity, the foundation stepped up to support essential legal services to immigrants. As the relationship grew and community needs evolved, Sand Hill Foundation recognized the deep need for representation in housing-related cases as the number of eviction cases in the county involving families with children escalated.

Many times, a call to Legal Aid SMC’s call center is enough to empower families to maintain their housing. However, sometimes more expertise is needed. Over the past year, Legal Aid served 663 families and provided full litigation support to 88 tenant households facing eviction with 72% of those clients winning their cases, enabling them to remain stably housed. For clients forced to move out, Legal Aid SMC supports them in rehousing and often is able to secure a relocation settlement from the landlord. Sand Hill Foundation is proud to support this crucial housing stability work so that all families can thrive in our home county.

Vida Verde Nature Education

“Sand Hill runs deep at Vida Verde. They’ve been solid partners for 14 years with sage advice, community connections, steady financial support, a lead capital gift, and most importantly being humans who we can rely on. We do it together with them…the heavy challenge and the richly successful outcomes.”

— Shawn Sears, Co-founder & Executive Director

In the natural splendor of the San Francisco Bay Area, students at low-income schools do not commonly have the opportunity to spend immersive time in nature, nor to see themselves as connected to or part of nature. Teachers in underserved schools often face a lack of resources, are overworked, and support kids from loving families who are extra-stretched – making it extremely difficult for their teachers to plan the deep enrichment and connection experiences that bring meaning and reality to classroom time.

Since 2001, Vida Verde has been nurturing Bay Area elementary and middle school students’ academic performance, social and emotional learning, and connection to the outdoors by providing free, overnight environmental learning experiences for students who don’t otherwise get the opportunity. Each class trip is a carefully crafted explosion of activities and experiences at the nature wonderland of Vida Verde, a 23 acre coastal farm, and nearby state parks and beaches on the San Mateo County Coastside.

The 5th grade trip provides the spark, when a teacher brings their class for three days. In high school, students return to the Summer Leadership Project for five days. And after that, the campers become the teachers when they get their job at Vida Verde as a counselor or come back as chaperone when their own child is in 5th grade. Vida Verde is a lifelong cycle.

Participating teacher surveys show that the three-day trip, packed with activities that address California state educational standards, has resulted in 89% improvement in students’ classroom learning and 95% improvement in personal responsibility and Teamwork.

Sand Hill Foundation has funded Vida Verde’s experiential learning programs since 2010. When Vida Verde launched its campaign to build a permanent home in San Gregorio, Sand Hill Foundation stepped up with an early capital gift to purchase land and build a new learning barn in addition to providing ongoing operating support.

Ayudando Latinos A Soñar

“We believe that culture inspires and heals the soul, opening doors for community wealth, leadership, activism, and engagement to flourish.”

— Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, Founder & Executive Director

The idea for Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (ALAS) sparked during Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga’s therapy session with a young client who had been in and out of the ER with stomach pains. She sketched in crayon a large mama cat and small baby cat both with tears streaming. She marked a big black X over the mama cat and, crying, asked Dr. Belinda, “What will happen to the baby cat if her mama is taken away?” She had heard about ICE and deportations and worried every day that she could be separated from her family. Dr. Belinda knew this girl was not alone in struggling with the traumas of migration. She had a vision of creating a sacred place where people could feel welcomed and protected.

ALAS began with this vision in 2011, serving the San Mateo County coastside community of Spanish speakers and farm workers from its home base in Half Moon Bay. As a Latino-centered organization, the offerings at ALAS weave arts, culture and identity together in support of community well-being. Today, ALAS has expanded to provide comprehensive, wrap-around programs for children, youth, families, farmworkers, asylum seekers, seniors, and the general Coastside community – including bilingual mental health services, art and culture classes, healthy free food, supportive services brought to farm workers, and an entrepreneurship hub.

Sand Hill Foundation started supporting ALAS in 2019 when its budget was under $250,000. Since then, the foundation has funded the organization’s steady growth, providing capacity building grants for ALAS’ office expansion in Half Moon Bay, crisis response support during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing funding for their youth mental health programs. Recently, the organization celebrated its 10-year anniversary, achieved a budget over $4 million, and was named the California Nonprofit of the Year in San Mateo County.

Peninsula Bridge

“Together with Sand Hill Foundation we are closing the achievement gap and propelling first-generation scholars to college and career success.”

— Randi Shafton, Chief Executive Officer

According to a 2021 article from the Pew Research Center, only 11% of students from the lowest-income quartile earn bachelor’s degrees within six years. For first-generation, low-income students, barriers to college access and completion have lasting implications for their ability to reach full economic potential. Peninsula Bridge recognizes this link between education and long-term career success, and helps students overcome systemic inequities at a critical time in their lives.

Peninsula Bridge equips students to thrive with a holistic, metrics-driven program grounded in long-term, wrap-around support from 4th grade through college graduation. The comprehensive 13+ year program model provides robust academics, socio-emotional learning, mental health counseling, parent education and college and career support. And, because students remain together as a cohort, they contribute to each other’s success. Currently 100% of Peninsula Bridge scholars graduate from high school and matriculate to college, with 97% on track to graduate in 4-6 years.

Sand Hill Foundation has partnered with Peninsula Bridge since 1996 to help create educational opportunity for high-achieving, low-income students. Grants have been provided for the middle school summer program, year-round after-school expansion, participation of the executive director in the Silicon Valley Out-of-School-Time Collaborative from 2010-2016, a merger in 2017, and significant growth capital as high school and college programs were launched.

A recent three-year grant from Sand Hill Foundation is helping Peninsula Bridge to strengthen and scale its successful model—adding school partners in high-need geographies, expanding the mental health wellness program to address a dramatic increase in need, and upleveling its college to career transition support.

Through our long-term partnership, we are elevating the lives of thousands of first-generation students upon college graduation, armed with the personal confidence, social capital and life/work skills to launch a successful future.

Peninsula Open Space Trust

“Sand Hill Foundation has been there for POST since we were founded in the 1970s. Their partnership has been instrumental in shaping the balance of rural and urban spaces that make this region so extraordinary.”

— Walter Moore, President

The San Francisco Bay Area is unique, with many thriving commercial centers ringing the Bay and nestled alongside a large amount of protected open space. It’s part of what makes the Bay Area a great place to live and work. These landscapes keep our air and water fresh and clean, ensure that our myriad local species have room to roam and thrive, and that our landscapes stay resilient in the face of a changing climate. This balance of urban and rural landscapes is no accident though. It’s the product of decades of work by environmental groups, public and private funders, and environmental conservation organizations like Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).

Sand Hill Foundation has been working with POST since its founding in 1977 when Tom Ford, the Foundation’s founder and environmentalist, provided POST with its very first office space. They shared a commitment to environmental preservation and began a relationship that has been strong ever since.

As a nonprofit land trust, POST protects open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all. Over the last 45+ years, they have helped to create a network of protected lands where people and nature can connect and thrive. They work to preserve land forever so that its natural benefits—like scenic beauty, clean air and water, locally grown food, and parks and preserves where people can connect with nature—are fully realized.
Headquartered in Palo Alto, POST’s unique and practical approach to land protection taps the power of both the private and public sectors. To date, they are responsible for preserving more than 87,000 acres of permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. These lands are now part of the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, California State Parks, county and city parks, regional preserves, and private farmland. They are places of natural beauty and abundance that provide practical benefits to all in our region because taking care of the natural world around us means taking care of ourselves too.