YWFC’s Siblings on the Rise Community Internship Program

Youth economic advancement

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

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

The Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC) formed in 1993 in response to intergenerational cycles of violence, incarceration, and poverty that system-impacted young women, girls and gender expansive youth in California have faced for decades. Today, YWFC works with CA’s most vulnerable young people who have survived the streets, the foster care system, exploitation, and incarceration; youth who are criminalized by multiple systems at once: school discipline, family separation, immigration, mental health, and detention/incarceration.
YWFC empowers these young people to become catalysts for positive change in their lives and communities. We prioritize reaching vulnerable populations where they are and fostering resilience and collective power through trauma-informed support, education access, and job pathways. Our work aims to disrupt cycles of violence, incarceration, and poverty by transforming systems and policies and building the capacity of grassroots leaders across California.

YWFC respectfully requests $75,000 to support our Siblings on the Rise Community Organizing Internship in Los Angeles County. This innovative program advances the economic empowerment, leadership, and resilience of systems-impacted young women, girls, and gender-expansive youth ages 14–24—most of whom are survivors of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, or state violence. Participants face structural barriers including housing instability, unemployment, and limited access to formal work experience.
Economic mobility is essential to disrupting cycles of poverty and trauma. Siblings on the Rise addresses these barriers through a paid, trauma-informed, and culturally rooted internship and fellowship program. Each year, 12 youth (10 Interns and 2 Fellows) are mentored by YWFC LA staff with lived experience. The requested grant would support 4 Interns over six months.
Through weekly sessions, participants receive hands-on training in grassroots organizing, campaign strategy, financial literacy, and career readiness. Core activities include healing retreats, mentorship with system-impacted professionals, and skill-building in public speaking, de-escalation, and community safety. Youth gain meaningful work experience, contribute to policy advocacy, and build long-term networks of care that promote healing, stability, and leadership.

YWFC’s Siblings on the Rise will transform Los Angeles by equipping systems-impacted young women, girls, and gender-expansive youth to lead efforts that dismantle oppression and build futures rooted in healing, economic stability, and self-determination. With continued support, our 2025–2026 cohort will increase their (1) economic mobility, (2) social-emotional growth and personal agency, and (3) civic engagement. These outcomes will lead to greater financial stability, reduced recidivism, and disrupted cycles of incarceration and system-involvement. Long term, YWFC aims to scale the LA internship by increasing the number of cohorts offered annually, ensuring more young people affected by poverty, criminalization, and the street economy experience its transformational impacts.