On Monday, April 15, from 3 to 5 p.m. the Humboldt County Transition-Age Youth Collaboration (HCTAYC) will celebrate 16 years of serving the youth and young adults of Humboldt County at a “Sweet 16 Party” at the Labor Temple, 840 E St. in Eureka. The event will include free snacks and refreshments, 16th anniversary stickers and pins and a look back at the impact the program has had at a local, state and national level.
HCTAYC is a youth leadership and advocacy program dedicated to empowering young people ages 16 to 26 with lived experience in foster care, juvenile justice, homelessness and behavioral health to transform the systems that have impacted their lives.
HCTAYC originated in July 2008, when a countywide meeting was called in response to the Foster Youth Resource Mapping Project. During the meeting, Phillip Crandall, the first director of the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), engaged current and former foster youth and local and statewide advocates on how to best improve outcomes through supporting the leadership development and amplifying the voices of transition-age youth in Humboldt County.
It was at this summit that HCTAYC’s founding Youth Organizer, Rochelle Trochtenberg, met Crandall. Through the meetings and conversations that came before and after that conference, the Y.O.U.T.H. Training Project (YTP), California Youth Connection and Youth In Mind (YIM) were identified as the private partners needed to make the program a reality. The role of founding director of HCTAYC was taken on by Jamie Lee Evans, a former foster youth and founder of YTP and YIM. Crandall and others developed a new funding model using the Mental Health Services Act and delivered a unique public-private partnership for HCTAYC.
From the beginning, HCTAYC has been guided by the knowledge that those most directly impacted by systems have invaluable expertise and should be included at every level of decision making in those systems. Over the last 16 years, it has supported countless young people to claim their power and become leaders for change. Since 2008, hundreds of local youth have been empowered to participate in the HCTAYC Youth Advocacy Board, promoting youth accessible and appropriate policy/education/research/training.
At the celebration, four individuals will be recognized for their various accomplishments and contributions to the empowerment of transition-age youth in Humboldt County.
Nancy Starck, the Legislative & Policy Manager for DHHS, will receive the “Phil Crandall Legacy Award.”
Dr. Virgil Moorehead Jr., Executive Director of Two-Feathers Native American Family Services, will receive the “HCTAYC Visionary Leader Award.”
Dahlia Cortes Garcia, current Social Work Student at Cal Poly Humboldt and former HCTAYC YAB leader, will receive the “Calla Peltier-Olson Youth Advocate Award.”
The Multicultural and Equity Center at College of the Redwoods, will receive the “HCTAYC Community Champions Award.”
For more information about the celebration and to RSVP, visit tinyurl.com/hctayc16.
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