Peer Power: Lifting Voices, Changing Lives

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

East LA South LA South Bay Long Beach West LA County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Our reason for starting New Leaf on Life is personal and painful. The lack of support and resources became evident when WE needed help with our loved ones. In LA County, 70,000 people are unhoused and youth age out of systems with no safety net, transitional-aged youth are left to navigate trauma, instability, and survival alone. One young man, Malik, was sleeping in his car after foster care. We started not with forms, but with food, care, and conversation. Our peer mentors—who’ve been there—helped him build a Life Plan, find housing, and reclaim dignity. Our peer-led model offers mentorship, life skills, and personalized plans rooted in trust. We don’t just connect youth to services—we walk with them toward stability. When youth are supported and seen, they don’t just survive—they lead, We know what it’s like to be overlooked, misunderstood, and told “you just need to try harder”—when what you really need is someone to stand beside you and say, “Let’s try again, together

This grant will support New Leaf on Life’s peer-to-peer mentorship and wellness program for system-impacted youth in South LA—young people aging out of foster care, returning from incarceration, or surviving trauma without support. These youth, like Malik in our earlier story, are often failed by fragmented, time-limited systems. We built this program from lived experience to address those gaps.
Unlike traditional models, our work begins with care. Every participant develops a personalized Life Plan with a mentor who has walked in their shoes. This builds trust and opens the door to healing.
Key activities include:
Weekly one-on-one mentorship grounded in trauma-informed care
Monthly wellness workshops covering grief, addiction, reentry, and healing
Ongoing access to food, hygiene supplies, emergency housing referrals
Quarterlycommunity-building events to reduce isolation
Warm handoffs to referral services, community-based organizations, and housing providers
What makes our work distinct is our dignity-first model and our focus on lived experience as a catalyst for transformation. We don’t just refer youth to services—we walk with them through the process, every step of the way. We measure success not just by housing or employment, but by stability, connection, and wellness. With this grant, we’ll demonstrate a replicable, compassionate model that meets youth where they are—and helps them rewrite their story.

If successful, our work will transform how LA supports system-impacted youth. From Oct 2025–Oct 2026, we’ll serve 25 participants in South LA with peer-led case management, Life Plans, housing support, and wellness tools. We’ll launch our referral program, host workshops, and build partnerships with housing and mental health providers. With support from LA county partnerships and other CBOs, we’ll streamline access to reentry, mental health, and housing services. Long term, we aim to expand countywide, train alumni as peer advocates, and establish formal MOUs with partners. By 2028, we plan to scale to five high-need communities and increase member-led programming by 50%. Our goals include 80% housing or employment placement and 90% reporting improved wellness. Our scalable, peer-powered model will shift LA from punitive systems to restorative, healing-centered support—where youth are no longer criminalized, but equipped, empowered, and embraced.