ANTELOPE VALLEY COMMUNITY UPLIFT FOUNDATION

Program Overview

The Antelope Valley Community Uplift Foundation (AVCUF) has an established mentorship program serving at-risk youth in underserved and marginalized communities across the Antelope Valley through youth empowerment, gang/gun violence intervention and prevention programs. Participating youth include youth that have been in contact with the correctional system as well as those most at-risk of entering the system, foster and homeless youth. Since its establishment in 2015, AVCUF has quickly grown to serving nearly 1,150 plus youth through its mentorship, after-school program, gang/gun violence intervention/prevention programs and a number of additional initiatives: basketball league, NFL Flag Football league and golf clinic sports programs; academic, STEM, and cultural enrichment programs; community service opportunities such as a shoe giveaway program, and family enrichment programming.

Under the existing AVCUF mentorship program, each mentor meets with their assigned group of mentees at minimum once per week in a group setting, with additional one-on-one or smaller group meetings with individual mentees as necessary to meet the needs of each youth. AVCUF mentors follow a mentorship curriculum that AVCUF has developed and which has been demonstrated to achieve positive results with participating youth. AVCUF mentors are volunteers and paid staff who must apply to serve as mentors for the program. Applicants are screened and must obtain a background check prior to working with the organization, in addition to completing a required mentor orientation. The majority of whom are adult professionals working in a variety of industries in the Antelope Valley community (engineers, scientists at the nearby Edwards Airforce Base, youth organizers, college students, etc.) and who serve as positive role models for youth in the AVCUF mentorship and after-school program.

To supplement mentorship sessions, AVCUF leads a number of additional initiatives that mentors and families of participating youth also engage in. These initiatives include:

- Antelope Valley Kids Matter

- Basketball League

- AVCUF Golf Clinic (quarterly)

- NFL Youth Flag Football League

- Special needs community sports program

- After-school enrichment programming

- Girls Who Code program that encourages at-risk female youth to learn about how to positively impact their community through code, in addition to teaching various approaches to resolving challenges and working towards closing the gender gap in technology

- Shoe giveaway community volunteer event

- Father's Day Kickball Game

- Student talent show for AVCUF youth

- Field trips and cultural outings such as Ram's football games, Laker's basketball games, STEAM-focused field trips to the nearby Edwards Airforce Base, theater and museum trips

- College fairs to promote pursuit of higher education

- STEM summer camps

- Fentanyl Awareness

- AIDS/HIV /STI Awareness

- Literacy program

Cost Info