JBAY is delighted to introduce our team of Youth Advocates for 2022! This inspiring group of 11 young people are a key part of our success. Each were formerly in foster care or have been homeless and bring their direct, lived experiences to our work in the areas of education, housing, and health.
The class of 2022 includes young people from across California. Many are college students, overcoming the obstacles that often prevent homeless and foster youth from earning a degree. Cody, Emmerald, Patrick and Aja attend college in the Sacramento area, at Sacramento City College and Sacramento State, while Rose is JBAY’s northern-most Youth Advocate, studying environmental science at Humboldt State. Christina represents the Central Valley, attending Bakersfield College and Elizabeth is working towards her degree at Ventura County Community College.
2022 will be the first year for some Youth Advocates at JBAY, while others are returning from 2021 or earlier. Alexis has been a Youth Advocate at JBAY for four years, playing a critical role in expanding access to safe, affordable housing for youth and increasing state investment to address homelessness. She has written multiple op-eds, spoken extensively, and was appointed by Governor Newsom to the California Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council.
Karen is a first-year Youth Advocate. She attends University of California Berkeley and will be working with Education Director Debbie Raucher on expanding access to campus support programs, which help foster youth succeed in college.
Also joining JBAY newly in 2022 is Taivon. Taivon attends San Francisco City College and will work closely with the education team to establish policies that will prevent youth from losing access to financial aid.
Several Youth Advocates are young parents, including Junely, Aja, Cody and Elizabeth. Each of these young leaders can draw on their knowledge and experience to improve the lives of young parents in foster care. This includes helping implement a new prenatal benefit that JBAY advocated to establish in the recently adopted state budget.
Together, this special collection of young people has a wealth of experience and commitment. Congratulations! We’re looking forward to a great year working together. To learn more about each young leader, follow this link.