Climate Resilient Communities

“Sand Hill Foundation has invested in our capacity to serve the most vulnerable and underserved populations in San Mateo County, ensuring their voices lead the way in creating effective climate solutions. Together, we are fostering equitable engagement that builds resilience and transforms lives.”

— Violet Saena, Founder & Executive Director

In the Bay Area, as throughout the world, under-resourced communities are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change impacts. Since 2016, Climate Resilient Communities has been on the ground learning the specific needs of residents in diverse, under-resourced communities in East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, and North Fair Oaks, and is expanding throughout Silicon Valley. Their outreach cultivates environmental awareness while giving local residents a voice in proactive resilience planning and adaptation. By building stronger alliances between residents, schools, local government programs, and community-based organizations, this work creates resilience against climate-related stresses such as sea-level rise and economic instability.

Climate Resilient Communities officially branched off from Acterra as its own organization dedicated to uplifting the Peninsula’s underrepresented communities in September 2020, becoming a fully independent 501(c)(3) in January 2023. Sand Hill Foundation provided early funding in 2021 in the form of a $100,000 matching challenge to stimulate other new donors to support the nascent organization. The match was exceeded three-fold and the staff increased from one to five employees. Today, Sand Hill Foundation provides sustaining unrestricted support and Climate Resilient Communities has a 15-person staff and a budget over $3 million.

Programs for the residents of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City focus on addressing requests for home safety and energy needs, such as rainwater cisterns, minor-home repairs, and air purifiers, while working on the government level with regional cities’ climate adaptation plans to conduct community-led vulnerability assessments. The organization also provides a variety of community education opportunities ranging from its Youth Climate Collective, a cohort-based Fellowship program, as well as disaster preparedness and environmental health workshops for local residents.

Regionally, Climate Resilient Community is leading the effort to build trust and strengthen relationships among community-based organizations and government entities in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. They are making substantial progress through the Santa Clara Climate Collaborative, recruiting inaugural members of the Equity In Community Work Group. They are also Equity Program Manager for the Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network. In order to help connect vulnerable residents and planning officials, there must be a collaborative community of practice that actively paves the way for effective and equitable partnerships – so all programs are designed to empower community voices in pursuit of equitable climate solutions that create unity, resilience, and justice.

JobTrain

“With Sand Hill’s investments, JobTrain is implementing groundbreaking new programs to help people onto a lifetime path of economic mobility, helping them, their families, and the regional economy.”

— Barrie Hathaway, President and CEO

At JobTrain they say that hope is a wish with a plan. JobTrain is advancing social and economic well-being in our communities by opening pathways to quality careers for people of diverse backgrounds. Amidst Silicon Valley’s prosperity, there are a great many people who are left behind. Ninety-five percent of JobTrain’s clients are extremely or very low income, defined by HUD as $97,900 for a family of four in San Mateo County.

JobTrain offers its clients the skills they need to find and retain meaningful, rewarding work, and connect them with life resources, job opportunities, and personal support to propel them forward and ensure their prosperity. Through Career Centers in six Peninsula locations and intensive training programs in construction, culinary arts, healthcare, technology, and Property Management, JobTrain serves over 4,300 clients per year.

Growing up, Maddie wanted to be a teacher. She even started working at a preschool to pursue her dream. During that time, she worked closely with a 5-year-old girl who was battling cancer. This was a turning point. Maddie’s new dream is to become a Registered Nurse in the Pediatric Oncology Department at Stanford. “I am so grateful for JobTrain. I am supporting my own education, so it was nice that I didn’t need to get financial aid or a loan. The Certified Nursing Assistant class is hands-on, the teacher is knowledgeable and patient. Nowhere else does that.” JobTrain provided a pathway for Maddie.

Sand Hill Foundation has been partnering with JobTrain to increase local economic mobility since 1995. Annual unrestricted grants have enabled program innovation and expansion in the career training programs and capital grants have provided upgraded facilities for classrooms and wrap-around services. Most recently, the Foundation made a $1.2 million pledge for a state-of-the-art Center for Economic Mobility to be constructed in East Palo Alto starting in 2025.

Adolescent Counseling Services

“During this extremely challenging time of serving an unprecedented number of clients in a timely manner, Sand Hill Foundation’s consistent investment in ACS over many years is heartening.”

— Philippe Rey, Executive Director

The need for youth mental health services has never been greater nationwide – and as the demand for therapy and support services for youth, parents, and caregivers continues to grow, Adolescent Counseling Services remains a critical source of support for communities across San Mateo County. For nearly two decades, Sand Hill Foundation has funded Adolescent Counseling Services as it empowers youth in our community to find their way through social-emotional support and by building safe, accepting communities.

In the most recent school year, the organization served over 15,000 individuals with direct mental health services, outreach, and education. Adolescent Counseling Services also provides professional training to Marriage & Family Therapy trainees, Social Work trainees, and Doctoral level practicum students, as well as offering opportunities for post-degree staff positions.

Sand Hill Foundation has focused its longtime support on mental health access for youth in San Mateo County, enabling no/low-cost mental health screenings, therapy, substance treatment, education, and support for vulnerable populations.

The foundation also has supported Adolescent Counseling Services to partner with others youth-serving organizations locally, including the San Mateo County Pride Center in San Mateo and CoastPride in Half Moon Bay, specializing in support for LGBTQ+ youth. At elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the region, they provide critical on-campus counseling based on severity of need, from peer support groups to 1:1 therapy, that would not otherwise be easily accessible to students. “ACS saved my life” wrote one student on a whiteboard outside the room where Adolescent Counseling Services delivered services at their school – a testament to the power of mental health support.

Rebuilding Together Peninsula

“Sand Hill Foundation recognizes the continued urgency to preserve affordable home ownership for neighbors-in-need across the San Francisco Peninsula.”

— Melissa Lukin, Executive Director

For those with limited income, addressing critical home repairs can be especially challenging while living in one of the most expensive regions in the United States for housing and home security. Doing things like replacing windows, rebuilding steps, or repairing a roof provides peace of mind and ensures critical asset retention to home owners.

Rebuilding Together Peninsula offers a lifeline to those-in-need through home repairs and modifications. Since 1989, the organization and its many volunteers have serviced at no cost more than 3,500 homes across the San Francisco Peninsula whose occupants include some of the community’s most vulnerable – seniors, veterans, individuals with disabilities, multi-generational families, and those traditionally marginalized.

Over many years, Sand Hill Foundation funding has buoyed Rebuilding Together Peninsula’s annual Rebuilding Days which serve as a catalyst for community engagement, as well as the minor repairs conducted year-round. Grants have also been provided for office needs like conference room furniture and the conversion to a Salesforce database, a new forklift for the warehouse, and unrestricted support for organizational stability.

Sand Hill Foundation’s funding continues to help Rebuilding Together Peninsula provide a measure of dignity for its Peninsula neighbors – offering increased opportunity to both preserve the affordability of their homes and age in place more comfortably. Because everyone deserves to live in a safe and healthy home.

Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula

“Sand Hill Foundation’s longstanding belief in the youth in our community has helped shape BGCP into the organization that it is today. From the beginning, this partnership has enabled BGCP to ensure all Peninsula students can thrive.”

— Jenny Obiaya, Chief Executive Officer

A core belief of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Peninsula (BGCP) is that all youth have talents and it’s BGCP’s job to identify and nurture those talents so they blossom because all youth deserve to have optimism about their future.

Just like the rest of America, our San Francisco Peninsula community has become more segregated based on income and race over the past decades. We now have many disparate neighborhoods with extreme differences in wealth, education, and opportunity here. Serving over 5,600 TK-college-aged young people annually at 29 sites, BGCP has expanded its presence and program quality year after year – and Sand Hill Foundation has been there almost every step of the way.

Even before the foundation’s inception in 1995, Susan Ford Dorsey partnered with Condoleezza Rice to create the Center for a New Generation – an enterprise that would become BGCP’s robust middle school enrichment program in the mid-90s. Since then, Sand Hill Foundation has provided consistent support for middle school and college-bound high school youth, along with capital support as new sites were developed.

From 2010-2016, BGCP was a key member of the Silicon Valley Out-of-School-Time Collaborative, an initiative for executive directors led by Sand Hill Foundation in partnership with Sobrato Philanthropies, Packard Foundation, and SV2. Through this collaborative, BGCP embedded social-emotional learning curriculum and program quality measures into daily practices alongside eight other local youth-serving organizations.

Most recently, as BGCP undertook another expansion merger in 2023, Sand Hill Foundation provided multi-year support for new programs in South San Francisco and Daly City – helping to enable a 71% increase in students who are accessing academic programs, mental health services, and extracurricular enrichment activities free of cost. BGCP is now the largest expanded-learning provider in San Mateo County.

One Life Counseling Center

“One Life believes that mental health care should not be a luxury item. We are so proud of our counselors in 29 local schools and the amazing connections they continue to make with their youth clients that remove barriers to therapy.”

— Suzie Hughes, Executive Director

Sand Hill Foundation recognizes the importance of providing access to quality mental health care for all community members regardless of their ability to pay. One Life Counseling Center has served San Mateo County since its inception in 2016. One Life provides counseling, education, and outreach programs to uplift the well-being of local communities. The organization’s mission is to connect marginalized young people with mental health care to heal pain and trauma.

Unrestricted support and emergency funding after a flood from Sand Hill Foundation have helped address disparities faced when accessing care by low-income, immigrant, Spanish-speaking, and BIPOC young people in San Mateo County. Over 140,000 San Mateo County residents speak Spanish at home and there is a significant need for Spanish mental health therapy services. Sand Hill Foundation’s most recent grants support increased services at One Life’s Latinx-led, Latinx-serving “Una Vida” office and through their community partnerships.

According to recent studies by the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five children ages 13-18 have or will have a serious mental illness. Additionally, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10-24. One Life Counseling Center has become a vital resource for young people in San Mateo County. The organization offers a range of services that include individual counseling sessions, group therapy sessions, educational workshops on mental health topics such as anxiety and depression, and outreach programs that provide support to schools, caregivers, and other community organizations.

One Life Counseling Center’s commitment to providing quality, accessible, multi-lingual mental health care to BIPOC youth and families fills an essential gap in services in San Mateo County.

HIP Housing

“We’re thrilled to have such a resonant mission match with Sand Hill Foundation as we build family econo mic stability and promote well-being in our communities.”

— Kate Comfort Harr, Executive Director

San Mateo County is one of the most expensive areas in the United States, and this has created a significant housing affordability crisis for low-income residents. According to Sustainable San Mateo County, nearly 25,000 low-income renters in the county lacked affordable housing in 2021. Additionally, 72% of extremely low-income households spent over 50% of their income on housing. The lack of affordable housing in our community exacerbates economic insecurity and mass displacement of low-income residents who are disproportionately Black, Latino, women and immigrants. Many individuals who seek housing support from organizations like HIP Housing often work multiple jobs for long hours and/or live in overcrowded and unsafe living conditions to be able to afford local rental prices.

Sand Hill Foundation funds HIP Housing’s Self Sufficiency Program. Established in 1991, the Self Sufficiency Program empowers low-income parents or emancipated foster youth who live in San Mateo County to build a stable future. This up-to-five-year-program provides housing scholarships to clients who are pursuing a career goal through continued education – whether college or job training. Program staff also provide intensive case management along with financial literacy and life skills training. The goal of the program is to help families move past barriers to their success and build the foundation of support needed to achieve a self-sustaining financial position and a sense of security.

In 2019, Iris was referred to the Self Sufficiency Program from a partner agency. She wanted to build a stable future for herself, her husband, and her young daughter and sought housing and case management support as she pursued higher education. She came to the program with an extensive history of trauma and very limited financial resources. James Simmons, Iris’s case manager, speaks about her resolve: “Iris is highly motivated to be self-sufficient because she has a great love for her family.”

Along with intensive, trauma-informed case management, life-skills resources, and financial literacy workshops, Iris’s family received a housing scholarship. For low-income individuals, housing costs are typically the greatest source of financial burden. “Housing was a key element,” said Simmons. “That relieved a lot of stress and gave Iris the opportunity to focus on her education, and focus on being a parent, focus on being a spouse.”

Iris will receive her AS degree in Allied Health this spring, an important step in her journey to becoming a Registered Nurse. Iris describes how her daughter motivates her: “I want to be a role model for her and show her that everything is possible and that she can do anything that she wants in this life.”