Publications

This summer, Cayla Divodi and Youlin Zhu, two local young people who aspire to enter medical school, conducted research on our city’s vape and smoke shops and found that over half of the 16 stores investigated are selling illegal, dangerous products. For example, in one-third of the stores, they found […]

On March 19th, 2026, a team of youth leaders active at Youth Forward mailed letters signed by 256 Sacramento high school students to the 9 justices of the Supreme Court urging the justices to overturn their ruling in Noem v Vasquez Perdomo. This decision blocked a lower court ruling prohibiting […]

In 2023 and 2024, Youth Forward led efforts at the state and local levels to ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products. Through our work in local high schools, we learned that young people had easy access to highly intoxicating candy edibles, made with hemp, that have been sold in […]

On February 22nd, 2024, Youth Forward released a letter to Governor Newsom and legislative leaders advocating for ongoing investments from state cannabis tax revenues in child and youth services and environmental repair. In developing this letter, Youth Forward partnered with leading environmental organizations. Currently the State invests cannabis tax revenue […]

On March 28th, Youth Forward presented an overview of mental health funding streams to the Sacramento Children’s Fund Planning and Oversight Commission. The purpose of this analysis is to assist the Commission in the development of the Fund’s strategic plan regarding youth mental health by illustrating what currently exists and […]

On March 7th, 2024, leaders who work in our Sacramento community in support of youth impacted by foster care brought forward a memo to the Children’s Fund Planning and Oversight Commission with recommendations on how the Fund can support vulnerable youth and prevent homelessness among young adults. Youth Forward facilitated […]

On February 1st, 2024, leaders in the field of early childhood presented recommendations to the Planning and Oversight Commission of the Sacramento Children’s Fund. The Oversight Commission has the task of developing a 5 year strategic plan for the Fund based on 5 goals, one of which is early childhood. […]

On February 5th, 2024, the Youth Forward staff presented to the Law and Legislation Committee of the Sacramento City Council regarding the growing problem of youth substance use and intoxicating hemp products. Throughout Sacramento, corner stores, vape shops and even some gas stations are selling highly intoxicating hemp edibles, often […]

In August of 2023, Youth Forward and Councilmember Mai Vang held a Youth Policy Convening at Luther Burbank High School that was attended by over 70 child advocates and policy experts. We were joined by city and county staff, the Mayor, Councilmember Rick Jennings, and youth leaders. Based on the […]

In March of 2023, Catalyst California and Youth Forward released a new report on how 9 cities in Los Angeles County are spending their local cannabis tax revenue. This report is one part of Youth Forward’s larger effort to raise awareness about how cities are using cannabis tax revenue and […]

Youth Forward is currently coordinating a statewide campaign to raise awareness of the impact on child and youth services of the tax cuts proposed by the cannabis industry. If the industry persuades the Governor and Legislature to make these cuts, we will see significant cuts to child care and youth prevention services […]

In September of this year (2021), Youth Forward and the Getting It Right from the Start Project at the Public Health Institute led a campaign to persuade Governor Newsom to veto a bill (AB 1302) that would have allowed cannabis billboards on interstate highways. We took this on out of concern for […]

Last week, Youth Forward released a report on how the youth development has been adapting its policies and practices in response the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is based on surveys and interviews with youth-serving organizations that are part of the Prop 64 grant programs managed by the Governor’s Office of […]

In the summer of 2020, Youth Forward staff interviewed 20 local high school students to get their thoughts on how Sacramento County schools should respond to youth needs during the pandemic. Youth expressed numerous concerns and generated ideas on how schools could support youth mental health and overall well-being given […]

In this paper, Jim Keddy analyzes the recent effort by Sac Kids First to create a children’s fund in the city budget of Sacramento. On March 3rd, 2020, 54% of Sacramento voters rejected Measure G, a policy which would have created a stable funding source for youth services in the city of Sacramento. A […]

During the Measure U campaign to increase the sales tax and in the debates that followed, Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other city leaders promised that they would use the proceeds to support “inclusive economic development.”