Focusing attention where it is most needed.

Status

Founded in March 2003, ROYAL - Realizing Our Youth As Leaders, Inc. (ROYAL) is a Section 501(c)3 non-profit whose goal is to provide a combination of mental health, mentoring, enrichment and academic assistance services to an at-risk and marginalized population of children who have been left behind or forgotten.

Mission

The mission of the agency is to prepare disadvantaged and/or at-risk youth, ages 5 to 18, for success in life by providing therapeutic services as well as training in personal empowerment and family and community leadership. Through exposure to focused therapeutic mentoring and engaged enrichment opportunities, ROYAL develops proper social skills and utilizes resources outside their personal awareness to create an opportunity for youth to utilize what they have learned by developing or participating in charitable efforts.

Staff

ROYAL is supervised by highly trained and credentialed staff and has the support of a growing group of dedicated mentors and volunteers who develop at-risk youth into self-actualized community leaders. They provide programs that focus on positive attention and nurturing as well as collaboration/linkage to other programs. Also included are academic support services and therapeutic interventions that provide guidance, positive role models and significant life skills training.

Target

ROYAL addresses a growing hole in services for youth in the Bay Area. Disadvantaged youth are more likely to have mental health and self-esteem issues, join gangs, commit violent acts, have violent acts committed against them, engage in harmful behaviors and have difficulty in school. Services for youth are disappearing, as evidenced by the growing number of city and county youth programs that have been eliminated, as well as the huge reduction of school programs in numerous school districts. The increasing lack of services for at- risk youth is reaching a crisis stage given the growing number of youth desperately needing the interventions of just this sort of outreach.

Challenges

ROYAL is responding to the challenge of the lack of appropriate and effective community service providers that can address the issues of this targeted population. ROYAL seeks to help children and their families who are not receiving services through traditional or established youth programs. ROYAL has created two effective programs to provide services, the Therapeutic Mentoring Program, which focuses on intense mental health and behavior management mentoring, and the Enrichment Program, which offers creative and fun activities not normally accessed by this population. The ROYAL facility offers a safe, structured environment where youth can benefit from many activities, trainings/workshops, support groups, homework assistance and enrichment programs.

Support

ROYAL relies upon the generosity of recognized leaders in the philanthropic community to support our programs that improve the lives of marginalized children and their families. We are requesting a gift to help us give these forgotten children the skills and the opportunities they need to become positive leaders and community role models.