That Dap: Marking A Moment for Positive Youth Development in LA

May 29, 2025

A formerly incarcerated man in his early 30s gives some dap with a crisp finger snap to a poet. They’re talking about breakthroughs from a Saturday morning workshop for youth in South LA that went extremely well. They turn their attention to a recent book about leadership development and design thinking techniques to improve programming. They’re among a couple of hundred people at a Ready to Rise Summit of organizations and staff committed to positive youth development.

Meanwhile, across LA that day, other forms of greeting are likely happening among young people themselves. Perhaps they’re meeting up after school to learn about filmmaking. Maybe a hopeful exchange with a mentor about what it takes to get a job, learning how to present yourself, thinking about what to do in an interview, considering how it might connect to what the young person wants to do in life.

These grips, these hugs, these high-fives are small signs of connection and progress. A gradual transformation that is remaking the social and community landscapes of Los Angeles.

Ready to Rise is a unique and dynamic public-private partnership between the California Community Foundation, Liberty Hill Foundation and the Los Angeles County Probation Department.

Recent grantee, Pause 4 Peace Foundation connects with their mission through digital channels; expanding opportunity for digital equity.

Regisha Rijkaard, executive director of the Pause 4 Peace Foundation, described their exponential growth after connecting with Ready to Rise.

“Ready to Rise gave us the opportunity to align with a broader movement towards closing the digital divide. Being part of this collaborative network expanded not just our capacity, but our ability to learn from others, share strategies, and scale what works.”

Ready to Rise is designed to expand opportunities and resources for programs that provide youth development and enrichment services, focusing on diversion and prevention versus ineffective punitive measures. Not only stop problems before they start but launch activities that allow young people to flourish.

Our goal is to build a system that replaces the traditional structures of punishment and incarceration with emerging best practices centered on healing, learning, and opportunity. What that means is that we can provide an alternative to punitive environments that sidetrack a young person from living up to their fullest potential and put them on a vicious harmful cycle. If we can do it in a preventative way, that’s even better.

We’re hitting an important mark right now in our work—winding down with our grantee partners that have been in a cohort for three years, in addition to starting a new cohort that will expand the universe of organizations and opportunities on the frontline of positive youth development.

Organizations like Bridge Builders, A Place Called Home, Share Fest, and EmpowerHer, were among those that forged some new paths and took some innovative approaches to engaging young people in ways that didn’t always have substantial or sustained support. They were doing great work but not always able to do on scale or fully develop a promising pilot into a permanent program. Nor get help in managing those resources from an organizational development standpoint.

Here’s what Executive Director James Breedlove had to say.

“When Ready to Rise came along, it enabled me to take this program that I had developed for graduated intermediate sanctions — as opposed to just locking everybody up — that I was trying to advance, and be able to work on it full-time. We moved from being a volunteer organization servicing about 120 young people, to five full-time staff working with over 700. That’s the kind of capacity those resources allowed us to have.”

So we’re very excited about this next cohort.

Investments in the program will increase by at least $50 million over the next seven years. And again, they come at positive youth development through different entry points, starting where young people are at. From Creative Acts, which uses theater arts to support justice-impacted youth express themselves and build resilience, to Future Leaders California, an organization that provides mentorship, leadership development and college preparation for underserved youth.

These organizations that are breaking new ground are mixed with historic deliverers of youth engagement like the East LA Rising, which provides customized community youth engagement services.

See the full list of organizations in this new cohort here.

We’re watching our impact make waves of connection through our youth, strengthening the course to a stronger community. Ready to Rise is creating an ecosystem that finds multiple opportunities for young people to thrive. Join us to see what happens.

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We are showing what is possible. We are creating an ecosystem that finds multiple opportunities for young people to thrive.

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