Opportunities for Youth

Providers   |    Technical Assistance   |    Evaluation   |   Family Support Workshops

The Opportunities for Youth Project

Administered by the California Department of Social Services' Office of Immigrant Youth, the Opportunities for Youth (OFY) Project is a state-funded initiative that offers culturally and linguistically responsive, trauma-informed, and wellness-centered post-release supportive services to Unaccompanied Undocumented Minors (UUM) and families throughout three regions in California.  Services include case management, navigation, mentorship, and wellness supports to youth, as well as services to their caregivers.  These specialized and supportive services are intended to:

  1. Support healthy and responsive relationships for youth and adults;
  2. Strengthen youth’s core life skills and adult parenting skills; and
  3. Connect youth and families with community resources and supports to alleviate stressors.

The OFY Project is being implemented using a collaborative and learning-focused approach. Specialized and supportive services are provided by eight non-profit organizations and one school district who have deep expertise and experience serving and supporting immigrant populations. Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) is providing program implementation technical assistance while Harder+Company is providing evaluation support.  One of the goals of this initiative has been to gather best practices to inform future support services for immigrant youth.

Providers

The following organizations deliver supportive services for the OFY Project.

SERVICE PROVIDERS
REGIONS SERVED
Canal Alliance Bay Area
Centro La Familia Advocacy Services Central Valley
Community Justice Alliance Central Valley
Esperanza Immigrants’ Rights Project Los Angeles
International Institute of Los Angeles Los Angeles
Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project Central Coast
Oakland Unified School District Bay Area
San Bernardino Community Services Center Inland Empire


FAMILY SUPPORT WORKSHOP PROVIDER
REGIONS SERVED
Hui International All regions

Technical Assistance

Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) provides technical assistance to support specialization and training on the specific needs and realities of unaccompanied children, as well as support the programmatic implementation of OFY.

Evaluation

Harder+Company and Stephanie L. Canizales provide developmental evaluation support for OFY to observe and learn about implementation efforts to help inform decision-making and facilitate real-time learning, as well as identify any emerging effective components and practices for serving future UUM populations.

Family Support Workshops

Hui International is a trauma-informed, healing-centered non-profit organization. The mission of Hui International is to create safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments where all can blossom and thrive. For the OFY Project, Hui International created family support workshops, the Mohala program, aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of immigrant youth and their families. Hui International works with OFY partner agencies to support the successful delivery of the project.

Back Top