“​​Los Angeles County is home to one of the largest populations of homeless youth in the country. The 2024 Point-in-Time Count identified 2500 unhoused young people (18-26) in LA County. YYA are more likely to be female, Black, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+. 1 in 5 unhoused adults first experienced homelessness as a youth, so it’s critical that we find innovative solutions to youth homelessness. Addressing this crisis requires a multifaceted approach that must include the leadership of young people to ensure successful program design and implementation. By providing a platform for transformation led by youth, the Pooled Fund continues to work towards a system that works for youth, designed so that homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring.”

“The Youth and Young Adult (YYA) Pooled Fund was launched in 2022 with seed funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Cedars Sinai and backbone support provided by Centers for Strategic Partnership. Since then, we have engaged in a true collaborative and participatory grantmaking effort, bringing together representatives from several capacity building organizations, philanthropy, and a team of young people with lived expertise, the LA Emissary (LAE). Together, we have provided technical assistance and granted more than $5 million to support efforts of small- to mid-sized organizations to address youth and young adult homelessness, reaching more than 2000 young people with both vital services and a pathway to make change at the organizational and systems levels. There is still much to be done, however, and over the next two years, we will build upon our learnings and our successes to further enhance the capacity of the YYA Pooled Fund, sending more resources into our youth homelessness response system and ultimately, reducing the number of unhoused young people in Los Angeles.”

“The key goals of the LAE and the Pooled Fund are to bolster movement towards a system that works for youth, develop lessons learned that will encourage youth-led decision-making and leadership practices, and drive systemic change and innovation.”

“CSP staffs the YYA Pooled Fund with the support of Watson Consulting Group (WCG). A WCG project manager takes the lead on managing the project workplan, facilitating meetings, conducting day-to-day grant administration, and engaging the members of the Pooled Fund in a collaborative shared space to develop the pooled fund application and allocation process, while CSP’s fiscal agent, Southern California Grantmakers will leverage their extensive experience in fund collection, distribution, and grant management to support the Pooled Fund. However, ultimately, our partnerships are key to the Pooled Fund’s continued success.”

For more options on language to use, reference the Pooled Fund page on Watson Consulting Group’s website.