funding area
Policy Change
We support efforts to create scalable, equitable access to youth and caregiver mental health services. We fund organizations shaping and implementing policy to ensure those in need get the quality care they deserve.
Featured grantee
Public Works Alliance
Public Works Alliance is a collaborative of policy experts, system leaders, researchers, and advocates dedicated to leveraging the knowledge, wisdom, and power of communities to strengthen the systems intended to serve them.
A seed grant from the Sarlo Family Foundation helped Public Works Alliance become the main contractor for the state of California’s emergency medical services training program, part of the organization’s vision to design and build career development opportunities within public systems for underserved youth. EMS Corps offers young people five months of EMT training, wraparound support, and job placement, redirecting the economic benefit of safety net services to community members and increasing cultural responsivity within the system.
Public Works Alliance is also increasing access to mental health care for low-income children and their caregivers by identifying gaps in Medicaid implementation and coding practices for reimbursement that are already being carried out as measures of medical necessity within pediatric safety net settings. After pioneering this work in California, the team is now supporting similar reforms in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, and Georgia.
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“Sarlo understands that in order for privately funded programs to become scalable and sustainable, we need to partner with public systems. They support us to take an outside-in approach, identifying the right people within systems to work with and exploring innovations in practice that lead to changes in policy. This work is unlocking resources at the highest level. It’s benefiting people across California and nationally.”
