
Sharing Community Pride
LGBT Center increases awareness through Pride festival, tours
Fred Palmer, who handles sponsorships for Sacramento Pride, recalls the festival’s 33-year journey from a gathering in McKinley Park to a larger event in Southside Park in Sacramento, finally making “a big, big leap” in 2010 to Capitol Mall, where about 13,000 people are expected to gather this year.

Holders of Hope
Stanford Youth Solutions empowers foster care families and foster youth
Stanford Youth Solutions, a Sacramento-based nonprofit organization, helps to support foster parents, foster youth and the families behind them through their foster care program.

Action Items: Lifting People Out of Homelessness
Crest Saechao and Rivkah Sass discuss how third spaces can help serve homeless community members
On this episode of Action Items, Crest Saechao, director of DECODE and bootcamp curriculum at Hacker Lab, joins Rivkah Sass, executive director of Sacramento Public Library, and host Tre Borden to discuss the role of third spaces in addressing homelessness.

A Roof of One’s Own
Sacramento Self Help Housing gets the homeless into housing and keeps vulnerable residents in their homes
As the Capital Region rallies around renewed homelessness talks and discussions on the impact of rising rent, one nonprofit has already worked for the last 17 years at the intersection of homelessness and affordable housing.

4 Giving Strategies to Up Your Charitable Impact
Californians are very generous. They donate about 2 percent of their income to charity, which amounted to more than $26 billion in 2013, according to the Urban Institute’s analysis of data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. If you plan to support your favorite causes this year, consider these simple, tax-smart strategies that help your charitable dollars have more impact.

In The Service Of Others
Through the work of the Dr. Hunter Foundation, a son honors not only his parents, but all veterans of Sacramento County
The Dr. Ernest and Arthella Hunter Foundation was started by Dr. Darryl Hunter. Ernest Hunter had been a career Army dentist for several decades and his son followed him into the military medical field, becoming a colonel in the Air Force Reserve and a radiation oncologist at Kaiser Permanente in the Sacramento area.

A Future So Bright
Upon receiving her bachelor’s degree in 2014, Monica Sandoval became Future Sacramento’s first student to complete the program and graduate college.

Saving Families, One Child At A Time
Yolo Crisis Nursery provides a safe, temporary home for children during family crisis
For local families — like Michelle and her children — in crisis situations, the safe home and services provided by Yolo Crisis Nursery are nothing short of life-changing, and lifesaving.

Threads of Honor
The California Capital Women’s Business Center is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to small businesses throughout the state. In collaboration with the Women Veterans Alliance, the Women Veterans One-Stop Resource Center was created to specifically address the needs of women veterans, their spouses and families.

Joy Ride
At Lincoln’s equestrian-based therapy program Ride To Walk, riders with disabilities gain strength, knowledge and skill
The Ride to Walk program has been in operation since 1985, and they have been improving their ranch since moving in 18 years ago. Use of the property is available to the public from dawn to dusk. To keep up with costs, the ranch also boards non-therapy horses, and the lake on site is also open for catch and release bass fishing for a $5, recommended donation.

Seeking Stability
New measures call for significant reform to offer foster youth a better chance at permanent homes
Foster youth who live in congregate care settings (like group homes) are more likely than those who live with families to suffer a variety of negative outcomes, including low education levels, mental illness and involvement with the justice system. Placing foster youth in a stable and caring home is paramount, but finding the best way to do that has proved challenging.

Back and Forward: Laura Heintz on Changes to the Foster Care System
Laura Heintz, CEO of Stanford Youth Solutions, says majors changes are coming to California’s foster care system. For more from Heintz, check out “Seeking Stability” in our April issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

Instruments of Change
Sacramento Guitar Society Orchestra encourages one young musician to give back to his community
The Sacramento Guitar Society Orchestra is one of several programs run by the Sacramento Guitar Society, a nonprofit that’s been around for more than 50 years. Among these programs, the Society also hosts concerts, offers scholarships for guitar camps and facilitates guitar donations for various music programs

Dilemma of the Month: Getting People to Give Notice
We service clients who are kids in the foster care system. We really value when our employees that resign give at least a three-weeks’ notice, so they can transition their clients — kids who have already had upheaval in their lives — to their team members before they leave. Is there any meat that we can put on the bones of a policy requiring a three-week notice, with some type of consequence for not providing this notice?

In Land We Trust
The Yolo Land Trust has protected Yolo County farmers and farmland from encroaching development for more than 25 years
As modern-day farmers find it increasingly difficult to deny the financial gains of selling their land for development, the Yolo Land Trust gives them a viable business option to conserve their property.

Compassion Planet Employs Aged-Out Foster Youth and At-Risk Teens
Deer Creek Farm, a retail boutique in Rocklin that offers unique gifts, home decor and a working garden, is not your typical shop. The shop employs aged-out foster youth (18 and older) and at-risk teens as part of a mentoring program with Compassion Planet, a Rocklin-based nonprofit organization that works to bring stability into the lives of young people by equipping them for future success.

5 Reasons to Join Your Neighborhood Association
When you gather a group of people interested in bettering their neighborhood, I am pretty confident good things will come your way. While most neighbors are interested in preventing crime, some are interested in clean public bathrooms or more street lighting. All of these personal agendas make for a diverse to-do list. When it becomes personal, the vested interest grows stronger within the group.

Nehemiah Corp. Shuts Down Most Operations
Nehemiah Corp., a social enterprise nonprofit that has spent two decades developing programs that help low-income people afford homes, is winding down most of its operations, the company has announced.

Let’s Believe in Sacramento’s Art Community
An open letter from one Sacramento resident on the importance of arts education and engagement
In response to Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s new investment in the arts and creative economy, this is my open letter to Sacramento as a whole. To the creators. The developers. The decision-makers. The people.

Sol Collective Close to Buying Building
Nonprofit arts and culture group needs $100,000 to cover down payment
The Sol Collective Arts and Cultural Center, a nonprofit that provides a space for artists and activists, is on track to buy the building it now rents on 21st Street near Broadway in Sacramento. Donors have pledged $70,000 toward a down payment of $100,000, says Estella Sánchez, the group’s executive director.