Youth Spirit Artworks

Youth Spirit Artwork's vision is that transitional age youth (16-25) will emerge centered, joyful and thriving in the world. You...Learn more

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Maheesh Jain is fundraising
YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth
The East Bay Youth Homeless Crisis
There are 1,700 homeless young people in Alameda County, and 36 youth designated beds in shelters and affordable housing.

Obstacles to Success
Young people facing housing instability overwhelming experience abuse and neglect, mental and physical health obstacles, and lack access to public resources. They have difficulty pursuing academic and vocational goals, and face life-threatening challenges and risks. Being homeless, even for a short period, can start a cascade of individual and social tragedies that can be difficult to overcome.

Here’s what we’re doing about it
We are developing a 24 unit Youth Tiny House Village in partnership with 15 interfaith congregations, community non-profits, and the City of Oakland. The village, with social services program support, will transition youth from homelessness/unstable housing to financial self-sufficiency and stable housing over a period of years.

Donate anything from $5 to $1000 to show grassroots support for finding long term solutions to the Bay Area Homeless Crisis. We can't make this happen without our community's fullest generosity.

We are crowdfunding $55,000, with a goal of organizing grass roots support for long term homeless solutions. Bay Area residents recognize the housing crisis on their doorsteps. City officials are implementing inhumane short term solutions, often focused on NIMBY solutions that push the homeless out.

The Tiny House Village is an example of an holistic solution (housing + social services) that provides transitional support for homeless youth so they can be self sufficient long term. We will use all funds to build 18 homes in 2019.

All donations over $110 come with a ticket to YSA's June 1st Gala! Email [email redacted] to collect yours.

Learn more about Youth Spirit Artworks.
Check out what the media is saying about us:

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/03/10/tiny-home-village-aims-to-combat-youth-homelessness-in-east-bay/

https://www.jweekly.com/2019/04/16/interfaith-coalition-building-tiny-houses-for-homeless-youth/

http://www.dailycal.org/2019/03/03/berkeley-arts-center-starts-construction-on-tiny-house-village-for-homeless-youth/

http://www.dailycal.org/2018/09/23/youth-spirit-artworks-to-collaborate-on-tiny-houses-with-campus-architecture-alumnus/

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-little-hope-for-a-homeless-solution-Tiny-12454639.php
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414 supporters
Blake Thomas is fundraising
Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
Want to join us in making a difference in the lives of disadvantaged Bay Area youth? Your donation will help make the SEED Center a reality!

We're about to begin construction on the Sustainability Empowerment and Educational Development (SEED) Center — a hybrid studio and living space that will serve residents of Youth Spirit Artworks’ (YSA) tiny house village for unhoused youth. YSA is a local nonprofit that serves unhoused and low-income Bay Area youth. Their tiny home village in South Oakland provides 22 residents aged 18-24 with housing, arts training, and access to essential services. Since 2007, more than 500 YSA program graduates have received a high school diploma, entered college, or entered the workforce.

Keep reading to learn how the SEED Center will help mark the latest chapter in YSA’s mission to serve.

SHAC team photo, fall 2022

But first, who are we?

We are Sustainable Housing at Cal (SHAC), a multidisciplinary group of students at UC Berkeley who share the common goal of creating sustainable solutions to housing issues. Since the fall of 2021, our Solar Decathlon team has partnered with youth, YSA staff, and professional mentors to design the SEED Center and fund its construction.

Rendering of the SEED Center in the existing tiny house village

THE PROJECT

The SEED Center will serve, first and foremost, as a community space for education and the arts. The 1500 sq ft building will be used as a workshop, art studio, and study area. The center will also include a space for someone to make their home. We intend to house visiting artists and professionals who will run training workshops for the village residents — while living among them! This model of reciprocal community living is central to the values expressed by youth and YSA staff at the onset of the project.

The center will be located adjacent to YSA's existing tiny house village and will anchor a major new expansion of its housing. Led by our partners at the University of San Francisco, the expansion includes around 24 redesigned tiny homes, with the SEED Center located at their nexus. The project will be critical to helping YSA expand its housing stock and bolster its capacity to provide services to marginalized youth.

YSA fine art studio & member meeting

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

The project’s design was developed in close partnership with YSA staff and youth. Through weekly meetings with village residents and staff, the team identified critical programmatic and design goals and learned more about life in the village. These meetings form the foundation for our design as we aim to center the youth’s lived experiences. The design adheres to a model of cooperative living and promotes education, self-responsibility, and a sense of community — all key values identified by the youth.

SUSTAINABILITY

Since its inception, creating an ambitious sustainable design has been a top priority for the SEED Center. Our most crucial sustainable endeavor is the integration of passive design elements which can serve occupants — without needing electricity! These include south-facing windows that maximize daylight and natural heat gain in the winter, significantly reducing overall energy use. Meanwhile, strategic roof overhangs block the direct summer sun, providing energy-free cooling from the shade. Smart, passive designs like these reduce environmental impact and minimize operating costs for YSA.

SEED’s solar array will cover electricity needs, further reducing operating costs and making the center resilient to blackouts. Resiliency is crucial to our other sustainable features: water recycling and rainwater harvesting. The center plans to recycle gray water from the shower to save the building over 3,500 gallons of water per year. Furthermore, our highly efficient, low-flow fixtures will save over 4,300 gallons per year.

Because of our strong focus on sustainability, the project will serve as UC Berkeley’s latest entry into the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon — a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build highly efficient buildings powered by renewables. The guiding principles of the Solar Decathlon helped inform the SEED Center’s resilient and self-sufficient design, ensuring it serves residents for decades to come.

SHAC team engaging village residents

WHERE WILL YOUR MONEY GO

The construction phase of our project is approaching soon. Your generous donations will allow us to purchase vital materials such as framing, insulation, and roofing.

Here's what your donations can accomplish!

$10 = 1 sq ft of flooring

$45 = 1 sq ft of countertop

$65 = 1 sq ft of window pane

$150 = bathroom fan

$385 = low-flow toilet

$450 = 1 wood cabinet

$2000 = electric water heater

$3000 = 1000 watts of solar energy per year

$4600 = atmospheric water generator

$23,000 = battery and solar inverter

Donors will also receive the following rewards for their contributions:

Every donation will play a crucial part in making SEED Center a reality!

Donors will be proud to know they made a difference in the lives of disadvantaged Bay Area youth AND contributed to a valuable experience for Berkeley students.
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31 supporters
Nicholas Gellerman is fundraising
Help Build Tiny Homes for Homeless Youths
We are building a tiny home community for homeless youth in Oakland, CA.
To date, we have built 26 tiny homes. We need to raise additional funds to continue our project to end youth homelessness.

If you would like to learn more about youth homelessness and the tiny home village, please view the video above.

If you would like to volunteer, go to: https://youthspiritartworks.org/get-involved/
Volunteers build each Saturday and no prior building experience is necessary.

If you are able to make a donation to help buy more materials, any donation amount is welcome, and all donations are tax-deductible.

THANK YOU!
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38 supporters
Eric Campos is fundraising
YSA Tiny House Village-Bathroom Trailer
Help put critically need last/finishing touches on Youth Sprit Artwork's Tiny House Empowerment Village...help fund the last payment on our bathroom trailer!!

In January of 2016, youth at YSA initiated a community organizing campaign to build a Tiny House Empowerment Village for homeless youth in the San Francisco East Bay Area. As of 2021, we’ve built 26 beautiful, youth-designed houses with the help of over 2,000 volunteers in Habitat-for-Humanity-style builds. The Tiny House Empowerment village officially opened in the Spring of 2021 to serve and empower 22 unhoused young adults from Berkeley and Oakland.

As a part of living at the Village, all residents are engaged in building a strong and connected community. Youth- and volunteer-led clubs give residents many opportunities for personal and professional growth, including access to training and mentorship. Residents are supported in developing a responsibility to the community at large, achieved through connections to local faith organizations and active involvement with local social justice projects. Additionally, all residents at the Village take part in YSA’s core jobs training program, where they receive wrap-around case management services and engage in youth-led workshops around healthy interpersonal relationships, restorative practices, and more.

We at Youth Spirit Artworks could not be more grateful to everyone who has already supported our Tiny House Empowerment Village. As we move on to the new phase of the THEV, YSA is still raising funds for specific Village project components. We are now fundraising to pay for the 2nd bathroom trailer for the village residents.

Donate anything from $5 to $1,000 to show grassroots support for empowering the lives of houseless young people in the Bay Area. We can't make this happen without our community's fullest generosity.

Visit Our Website to learn more about YSA and what we do!
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50 supporters
Felipe Barandiaran is fundraising
Tiny House Project for Homeless Youth
Please join our CPS student group in making an immediate and significant impact on the challenges that homeless youth are facing in our community. We’re raising $12,500 to build a tiny house for homeless youth -- a fully insulated, heated, windowed, and furnished 8'x10' single unit home. We need the money to buy the construction materials, and our volunteer group will build the house alongside other volunteers.

We are working with Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) and Housing Consortium of the East Bay (HCEB). Once completed the home will be added to YSA's Tiny Home Village of 26 homes, which is scheduled to launch in July 2020. The tiny house will be provided to currently homeless and low-income youth, in a nurturing and supportive community. 100% of your donation will go towards buying the materials, and is fully tax deductible.

Your donation will make a very direct and big difference in providing hope for a bright future and we greatly appreciate your support!

YSA is a job training non-profit serving 16-25 year-old homeless and low income people, and we’re proud to be supporting their mission. You can learn more about YSA and the Tiny House Village, here:

http://youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village
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47 supporters
Didi Miller is fundraising
Tiny Home Project
Hello friends! I'm raising money for a super geographically relevant issue for us as Bay Area residents and a cause that is striving to address the unequivocal human right of shelter and home. I'm hoping to raise $12,500 to cover the cost of materials for a tiny home -- a fully insulated, heated, windowed, and furnished 8'x10' single unit home. By next summer, this house will be donated to a currently homeless youth. This is not a theoretical, slow-moving, far-off-in-the-future foggy goal: this is an immediate, personal, and achievable solution to youth homelessness in our communities, and of paramount relevance in our area. Youth homelessness is a tragedy and requires an immediate solution, and this is the individual step that we can take. I am working with Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA) on this project and when it is completed it will be added to YSA's Tiny Home Village that is scheduled to launch in July. All donations are 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
For more information and pictures, click the link below :)

http://youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village
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113 supporters

About Youth Spirit Artworks

Youth Spirit Artwork's vision is that transitional age youth (16-25) will emerge centered, joyful and thriving in the world. Youth Spirit Artwork's mission is to create spaces of safety, dignity and belonging for healing, transition, growth and development of TQBIPOC youth experiencing various vulnerabilities and challenges.

633C Hegenberger RdOakland, CA 94621

Find Youth Spirit Artworks at

Causes

Youth mentoring, Transitional living, Youth services, Homeless services

Established

2011

Tax ID

20-8857392

NTEE code

Employment Training

Youth Spirit Artworks is a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 20-8857392. Donations are tax-deductible. Select content is provided by GuideStar.

Recent Donations

Anonymous donated to YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth
$2501 yr
Anonymous donated to YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth
$1001 yr
Richard Millikan donated to YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth
$2001 yr
Rosemary Corbin donated to YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth
$1002 yrs
Susanna Porte donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$202 yrs
Anonymous donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$502 yrs
Kathleen Campbell donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$5002 yrs
Sheila Campbell donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$5002 yrs
Harriet Rose donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$1002 yrs
Sheila Campbell donated to Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth
$5002 yrs

Youth Spirit Artworks

YSA Tiny House Village - Support Homeless Youth

Help Build a Community Center for Unhoused Youth

Help Build Tiny Homes for Homeless Youths

YSA Tiny House Village-Bathroom Trailer

Tiny House Project for Homeless Youth

Tiny Home Project