Eden Youth And Family Center

Eden Youth and Family Center (EYFC) is a cooperative of organizations committed to improving the quality of life for children and families of all ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds. EYFC promotes equitable access to coordinated services, strengthens families, and empowers youth and adults to build healthy communities. As a non-profit organization, EYFC primarily provides services to the federal government through grant awards focused on substance abuse prevention, mental health promotion, and public health education programs targeting underserved communities.

Through a recent $750,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), EYFC will provide substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion services to 5,600 students in Alameda County, California from 2023 to 2028. Key activities include implementing evidence-based curricula like Stanford's Cannabis Awareness and Prevention Toolkit, training educators and community health workers, facilitating community events, and conducting program evaluations aimed at reducing cannabis use and improving mental health awareness, particularly among Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and other youth populations impacted by health inequities. EYFC will partner with local school districts, the Hayward Coalition for Healthy Youth, Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, and Stanford Medicine to achieve these objectives. Additionally, EYFC has received several sub-awards, often collaborating with organizations like the Hayward Promise Neighborhood, to address public health disparities in the Hispanic/Latinx community through initiatives like the CDC's Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Adult Immunization program. These sub-awards involve training trusted messengers, disseminating video messaging, and hosting vaccination clinics to improve vaccine access and equity.