Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced $60,000 in grants to local grants, many of them targeted to help disadvantaged children of color.
Some of the District Attorney’s Office annual Bend the Arc grants will allow children to go on hikes, tour colleges, get an internship, or learn from a mentor.
This year, Rosen awarded the grants to 16 organizations ranging from the Poco Way Neighborhood Association to the African American Community Service Agency. One program will use the money to train Vietnamese youth in how to become civic leaders; another will be used to take Overfelt High School students on tours of UC Davis and Sacramento State.
The grants come from the district attorney’s Asset Forfeiture Fund, which is money seized from gangs, drug traffickers and criminal organizations, with the goal of helping to repair some of the harm caused by those criminal enterprises.
“It is not enough to recognize that young people are our future, we have to invest in them,” said Rosen in a statement. “The children of Santa Clara County should know that diversity is our superpower and that they are our heroes.”
Rosen announced a series of 26 social justice reforms in 2020, including the Racial Justice Grant Program. All the reforms are intended to address racial discrimination and promote equity within the criminal justice system. The implementation of the reforms began in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
This year’s grant awardees are:
• African American Community Service Agency
• The Day Worker Center of Mountain View
• Empower and Excel
• Fresh Lifelines for Youth
• HealthRIGHT 360
• International Children Assistance Network
• Karat School Project
• Leadership, Education, Activism and Dialogue Filipino
• Poco Way Neighborhood Association
• Poetry Center San José
• Santa Clara County Office of Education
• Santa Maria Urban Ministries
• Saved by Nature
• Sunnyvale Neighbors of Arbor, Including LaLinda
• Valley Palms Unidos
• William C. Overfelt High School
