The Richmond Fund for Children and Youth (RFCY) is releasing its 2025-2028 Request for Proposals (RFP) to secure program proposals from non-profit organizations and public agencies. This initiative aims to deliver services to children and youth in Richmond and unincorporated North Richmond, California. The RFCY's mission, as outlined in its Charter, is to support services for young people to ensure they are physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially healthy, educated, and successful in school, living in stable, safe, and supported families and communities. It also seeks to strengthen collaboration among agencies and community-based organizations to achieve shared outcomes for children, youth, and young adults. The Fund is committed to an equitable distribution of resources, recognizing the importance of investment in young people's futures from birth through young adulthood, and aims to fill service gaps while leveraging other resources.
The grant program targets a broad range of beneficiaries, including children (birth to 12), youth (ages 13 to 17), and disconnected transitional-aged young adults (ages 18 to 24) who are most impacted by harm, inequity, and lack of access to support and services, along with their caregivers. Prioritized populations include system-involved young people, those pushed out of school, individuals experiencing or threatened by homelessness, young people living in poverty, immigrant and undocumented families, LGBTQ+ children, youth, and families, teen parents, young people with poor physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral health outcomes and disabilities, and families impacted by the criminal justice, foster care, juvenile justice, or special education systems.
The program's priorities and focus areas are centered on direct services addressing core needs: Mental and Behavioral Health and Wellness, Physical Health and Wellness, Learning Needs, Safety, Community, and Belonging, and Connective Supportive Services. The Fund also explicitly seeks to ensure young people receive gender-responsive, trauma-informed, population-specific, and culturally competent services. The overarching strategic priority is to increase safety for children, youth, young adults, and their families by preventing problems and enhancing their strengths.
Expected outcomes and measurable results are implicitly tied to the stated goals, which include ensuring young people's holistic health, educational success, and stable living environments. The Fund also seeks to increase safety, provide appropriate and competent services, strengthen collaboration, ensure equitable resource distribution, and fill service gaps. While specific metrics for these outcomes are not detailed in this summary, the emphasis on "shared outcomes among all service providers" suggests a focus on collective impact. The grant duration is three years, from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027, with an annual allocation of approximately $6.37 million for FY2025-2028, underscoring a long-term commitment to these goals.
