funding area
Reimagining the Workforce
There is a critical shortage of mental and behavioral health care providers and those working in the field often do not reflect our most vulnerable youth. We fund organizations developing first responders, health navigators, and healers from within the communities they serve.
Featured grantee
Beats Rhymes & Life
The experience and effects of racism are forever evolving within our culture. Founded in 2004 to decrease stigma among youth of color seeking therapy, Beats Rhymes & Life is the only nonprofit in the country bringing clinicians, teaching artists, and peer mentors together to deliver hip hop therapy. Beats Rhymes & Life is inspiring youth to recognize their own capacity for healing and self-expression and redefining what it means to be culturally responsive.
Data shows that treatment is most effective when practitioners reflect the race and background of those seeking care. At any given time, approximately 60% of Beats Rhymes & Life staff are former program participants. In addition to its outreach, prevention, and therapy programs, the organization is committed to building a career pipeline for care providers of color. BRL Academy trains youth to become helpers, healers, and leaders in house and beyond.
From its headquarters in Oakland, Beats Rhymes & Life is also decreasing racial disparities in access to high-quality mental health care across the field at large. The team provides technical assistance to fellow youth-serving nonprofits and county agencies. Since 2012, Beats Rhymes & Life has trained over 800 mental health, education, juvenile justice, and child welfare providers.
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“With Sarlo, it’s so much bigger than just the check. They are really good at connecting us to their network of other funders and they consistently highlight our work in public ways. Let’s be real, there’s still stigma around hip hop, maybe even more now than ever before. So for Sarlo to get behind us, not just monetarily, but in all these other ways—that’s the kind of foundation I want to rock with for sure. It’s a huge testament to how much they believe in us, trust us, and are invested in us.”
