Policy Project

The teen center project through partnership with the policy project, in 2023 the utah legislature appropriated 15 million in grants for teen centers, and the policy project raised an additional 2.7 million from private donors to create a private matching grant. Teen centers are an innovative, space-based solution for students in crisis that centralizes school services and resources such as food and clothing pantries, laundry facilities, hygiene resources and showers, mental health supports, academic supports, and post-graduation planning. In 2024, we awarded 72 schools from 32 different leas across utah funding to create teen centers. The policy project continues to support teen centers statewide through multiple initiatives including forming an alliance to connect teen centers, gathering resources for schools, and collecting data about teen center services & use.

The safe child project in 2024, we successfully advocated for the unanimous passage of sb 205 which paves the way for all 347,000 utah elementary students to receive child sexual abuse prevention education every other year by allocating 1.5 million in ongoing funding and creating a structure for statewide reach. To create grassroots support and change the culture in utah around child sexual abuse, we held 24 events across the state with more than 1,600 attendees. We partnered closely with existing prevention stakeholders in utah to ensure our solution was supported by experts and to expand the network of organizations working for maximum impact of prevention education in utah. The policy project is working to support successful implementation of this policy statewide by supporting usbe systems creation, gathering resources for schools & parents, coordinating community outreach efforts.

The focused student project we are currently working to successfully pass two bills during the 2025 utah legislative session. The focused student project, tackles food insecurity by expanding access to no-cost school meals and increasing summer nutrition support. It also promotes healthier learning environments through a proposed policy limiting smartphone use in classrooms, addressing factors that impact academic success and mental well-being. Student ambassador program the policy project works with students ages 12 to 18 to develop leadership skills and make a difference in their community via service and advocacy. Each month, we focused on one of our three pillars of leadership, service, and advocacy, and offered remote training and tasks for student ambassadors to engage in. Our monthly speaker series gave our student ambassadors an exclusive chance to learn from all-star leaders from across utah. We also invited our student ambassadors to attend an in-person service or advocacy event each quarter. Community development program we believe in the power of policy to make lasting change, and we know that civic and community engagement are instrumental to our work. We are dedicated to fostering nonpartisan support for policy solutions and to training future leaders along the way. We collaborate closely with legislators and stakeholders and cultivate grassroots support for maximum impact. Our community development program enables the crucial work to build relationships with stakeholders and identify unmet needs in our communities that can be solved through the efforts of the policy project. In 2023, we hosted 59 events with 4,602 attendees and engaged with more than 300 volunteers.