Alliance Healthcare Foundation

The Alliance team was on the move at the Casa Familiar Abrazo 5K Walk/10K Run! We joined hundreds of community members as we made our way through the course along the scenic San Ysidro–Tijuana border in support of Casa programs.

We were also incredibly honored to be recognized by Casa leadership this year during the closing Abrazo Awards ceremony. Abrazo means “to hug or embrace,” and the award recognizes those who advance change and align with Casa’s mission while centering Latinx, BIPOC, migrant and/or underrepresented communities.

To the Casa Familiar team – we are proud to walk (and run!) in solidarity with you. Casa programs strengthen San Diego communities in ways that support both immediate health needs and generational change, and Alliance deeply values our ongoing partnership.

Our hearts are with the families and community impacted by the violence at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

A house of worship should be a place of safety, peace, and belonging. No one should fear violence because of their faith, race, identity, or the spaces where they gather in community.

The Islamic Center of San Diego has established a Victim & Family Support Fund to support impacted families. Please consider giving directly here:

ISLAMIC CENTER OF SAN DIEGO IQAMA TIMES

Youth mental wellness is shaped not only by access to care, but also by the environments young people move through every day, including schools and digital spaces.

We’re proud to partner with Live Well San Diego and the San Diego County Office of Education for tomorrow’s convening exploring smartphone policies, healthy technology habits, and lessons emerging from schools across the region.

The event will also feature student perspectives and findings from a student-led smartphone survey.

More information: https://bit.ly/3Oh4Drw

Grantee partner spotlight: Congratulations to Rainbow Spaces Executive Director Nadia Kean-Ayub, who has been recognized as a Nancy Jamison Fund for Social Justice 2026 finalist! Kean-Ayub founded Rainbow Spaces in 2021 to provide LGBTQ+ youth and their families with safe, inclusive spaces for social/emotional connection and wellness.

Young people’s relationships and interactions with family, friends, and community members can have a major impact on their health and well-being. Rainbow Spaces is helping to fill a critical gap in services in the South Bay and East San Diego County by providing youth with supportive spaces of belonging and wellness.

Learn more about their work at www.rainbowspaces.org.

POV: A nonprofit is awarded a grant to maintain critical services, but it will take another three months for funding to be disbursed. In the meantime, they’re expected to keep programs running, meet payroll, and respond to urgent community needs, despite not yet having the funding to do so. Now what?

This is a scenario which nonprofits are put in all too often. When grant structures or reimbursement schedules aren’t built to meet the real-time needs of nonprofit operations, it can delay critical services and threaten organizational stability.

♦️ The Sustained Support Fund works with nonprofits to bridge short-term cash flow gaps so they can continue their work uninterrupted while waiting for committed funds to arrive.

♦️ AHF has partnered with local funders to launch this rapid-response grant program for San Diego and Imperial County-based nonprofits, fiscally sponsored projects, and tribal entities.

♦️ Since launching, over a dozen local organizations have received recoverable grants. The funding has already been repaid and cycled back into the fund, enabling more organizations to apply for and receive support.

Learn more: https://catalystsd.org/catalyst-collaborative/sustained-support-fund/

New support for local nonprofit sustainability ⚠️ AHF is working alongside partners including The Prebys Foundation to support the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative (NSI) San Diego, a pooled fund which expands access to the tools and expertise nonprofits need to adapt during moments of transformative change.

FUNDERS: HOW TO LEARN MORE
➡️ Funders interested in leveraging their resources to help San Diego nonprofits navigate change are invited to join the NSI San Diego launch webinar on April 21st: https://catalystsd.org/event/nonprofit-sustainability-initiative-san-diego-launch/

NONPROFITS: HOW TO LEARN MORE
➡️ Get the details on NSI San Diego at https://catalystsd.org/nsi-san-diego/

➡️ Sign up for the NSI San Diego newsletter to be notified when resources for nonprofits are available: https://go.catalystsd.org/l/567872/2026-02-26/lvgz9x

A big thank you to the City Heights Community Development Corporation (CHCD) team for recently hosting a beautiful event with its network of partner organizations – what a privilege to be in community with so many dynamic organizations!

Alliance values being in partnership with CHCD as they advance housing stability, economic opportunity, and community well-being in City Heights.

Learn more about their work and how you can get involved at www.cityheightscdc.org.

Nonprofits are often closest to the challenges facing our communities and are well positioned to help shape the systems that influence health and well-being. Yet many organizations and their teams have limited opportunities to hone the skills and confidence needed to engage in these spaces fully.

We recently hosted a workshop with nonprofit advocacy and lobbying expert Pat Libby. During this practical skill-building session, nonprofit leaders connected policy concepts to their day-to-day work and explored ways to engage legally and effectively in advocacy and lobbying.

💡Our take on nonprofits, advocacy, and lobbying ➡️ Nonprofits don’t operate in a vacuum. They play a key role in our daily lives and the well-being of our communities. It’s critical they have access to the tools and skills needed to advocate for equitable systems that enable both nonprofits and philanthropy to achieve their missions.

Learn more about how we're working alongside our nonprofit partners to support systems change at https://alliancehf.org/news/supporting-nonprofit-sustainability/

For years, families and researchers have raised concerns about how social media may be affecting the mental health of young people.

A recent landmark ruling found major platforms negligent for harms linked to engagement-driven design, marking a notable shift in how these impacts are being understood.

At Alliance Healthcare Foundation, we believe mental wellness is shaped not only by access to care, but also by the environments people move through every day—including digital spaces. Supporting well-being means addressing both immediate needs and the upstream conditions that influence health.

In 2024, we were honored to host Zach Rausch, whose work with Jonathan Haidt on The Anxious Generation highlights the importance of collective action to create healthier conditions for young people. Moments like this reinforce the need for continued learning, collaboration, and investment in youth mental health.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/technology/social-media-trial-verdict.html?smid=url-share

This transformational behavioral health tool has the potential to reduce waitlists, improve patient outcomes, and strengthen the effectiveness of community-based services in San Diego 💡 With AHF's support, three service providers in San Diego are the first in California to complete training on a new evidence-based framework.

➡️ The Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) integrates multiple treatment models into one streamlined approach, helping clinicians treat complex behavioral health needs more effectively.

➡️ Our partners at San Diego Center for Children, Urban Restoration Counseling Center, and Rady Children’s Health North Inland Clinic are now equipped to pilot this model, which allows providers to provide tailored, streamlined, and evidence-based behavioral health support.

Get the details here: https://alliancehf.org/news/community-led-progress-recent-milestones-in-housing-behavioral-health-and-economic-mobility/