All In For Kids announces leadership grants to eight Bay Area partners to interrupt childhood trauma and advance equity through community-centered solutions

With a focus on prevention and co-creation with families with lived experience, partners will create breakthrough, transformative and community-resonant strategies that will help positively shape the Bay Area’s future

SAN FRANCISCO (Sept. 29, 2021) — All In For Kids, a new grantmaking initiative that seeks to reimagine how early childhood support systems can interrupt trauma and adversity, prevent domestic violence, and advance equity through co-design with communities, today announced its first leadership grants to eight Bay Area community partnerships. Lead organizations for each collaborative will receive $600,000 over the course of three years.

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Blue Shield of California Foundation, and First 5 Sonoma County have joined Futures Without Violence to create All In For Kids. The initiative focuses on young children from birth to age 5, along with their families and caregivers, with an investment in transformative, community-centered solutions.

“The shared trauma of COVID-19 has exacerbated the deep inequities already experienced by kids and families of color,” said Rajni Dronamraju, Senior Director of Charitable Giving at Genentech. “Our goal with All In For Kids is to advance the most promising and innovative solutions that help low-income children — and their caregivers — heal and thrive.”

All In For Kids centers families and their lived experience in its work to advance long-term policy development. This pioneering program seeds local collaborations throughout the Bay Area with a focus on preventing childhood adversity and domestic violence in the first place. To date, over $6.5 million in seed capital has been raised.

Following are the eight grantees, see the full list of project descriptions here.

Carry the Vision

Children Now

First 5 MontereyCounty

La Luz

Mission Economic Development Agency

The Primary School

Safe & Sound

Young Women’s Freedom Center

In California, one in seven children experience trauma before the age of five — and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated this critical public health issue and disproportionately affected communities of color. Nearly 18 percent of children in the U.S. are exposed to domestic violence, equating to more than 13 million kids whose formative years are shaped by family violence. Research has shown that prolonged exposure to stress and trauma, such as abuse, neglect, violence, and racism, can harm children’s developing brains and bodies and lead to higher rates of illnesses later in life (like cancer, stroke, heart disease and Alzheimer’s). The effects of trauma on children also translate to long-term public health consequences and limit the potential of future generations. 

“All In For Kids brings together the experiences of families with the systems that support them through community collaboratives and policy coalitions that work to break the multigenerational cycle of violence. We must reduce childhood exposure to domestic violence by focusing on opportunities for healing and prevention,” said Debbie Chang, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Shield of California Foundation.

Each of the All In For Kids local collaboratives will become pilot initiatives to test seamless and integrated services to families to take a preventative, long-term approach to treat and heal root causes of trauma, health adversity, domestic violence, and toxic stress. This model will also help to reduce childhood poverty and to prepare a generation of strong families by considering the health, safety, education, housing and economic supports for caregivers and families that undergird healthy and stable communities. All In For Kids aims to serve as a learning and innovation hub for the nation and the state.

“All In For Kids is one of this organization’s most promising initiatives, and it’s especially important at this critical time when the pandemic has made life harder and increased the trauma kids are experiencing,” said Futures Without Violence President Esta Soler. “Through this initiative, we are giving local partners the power to learn from the kids and caregivers most affected by trauma. We are confident that the lessons we learn through this work will inform and guide effective interventions well beyond northern California for years to come."

Learn more at AllinForKidsCA.org 

###

Press Contacts: 

Contact: Debbie Mesloh, (415) 867-2243, debmesloh [at] gmail.com

Lisa Lederer, (202) 371-1999, lisa [at] prsolutionsdc.com