Gens in Action:  Intergenerational Organizing Fueling California's Grassroots Power

Our communities are experiencing a flood of overlapping crises. Decisions to gut healthcare funding, separate immigrant families, and roll back federal climate policies threaten the health and wellbeing of all Californians. But community organizers are undaunted — and philanthropy has a duty to match their bravery.

Changemakers on the ground need long-term, flexible funding to build and sustain the networks of people power that can curb injustices and truly change systems. This truth is what inspired The California Endowment’s $300 million Social Bond, launched in 2020 to invest in grassroots power building for health justice and racial equity. In spite of the systemic setbacks we are weathering today, community organizers are still making an impact using Social Bond resources.

There is a common theme to grantees’ impact, across various sectors and issue areas: They build people power with community members of all ages. Some directly grapple with new threats, while others grow deeper roots to build power for the future — but all draw on a deep well of cross-generational wisdom and potential to make progress.

“Our communities have always struggled. The resistance will always be there, so how do you build together? You can only do that within generations,” says Andrea Mackey, Associate Organizing Director at the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN).

CPEHN has been instrumental in two rapid-response campaigns in 2025: it co-led the Fight for Our Health coalition to combat healthcare funding cuts and hold decision-makers accountable, and is a member of #Health4All to protect everyone’s access to health coverage and care regardless of immigration status. As the campaigns addressed urgent issues in complicated systems, keeping communities connected across generations proved to be critical.

“Community health workers are our aunties or our youth bridging the gaps…speaking the language their parents are speaking,” Mackey explains. “They're the ones helping set up Medi-Cal for them and their families. They understand these systems that are hard to navigate.”

At Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), youth and elders alike are taking action to make their Bay Area communities resilient amidst a changing climate. “We have to thread the line of keeping our community safe while not shrinking, so we are expanding what our resilience work looks like,” says Shina Robinson, APEN Resilience Projects Director. “Our Richmond members have been really interested in more land-based projects, like a community garden that creates opportunities to gather around healing and celebrating culture. We have youth, our young adult base, as well as our elders who have done garden work in the past and are playing an advisory role.”

APEN is also strengthening climate resilience in Oakland by pushing for a community-driven process to renovate the Lincoln Recreation Center into a Climate Resilience Hub. It revives a long-beloved site where community members can organize and access response, recovery, and social services in disaster situations. “It’s a gathering spot for new immigrants, but it's also a place where people keep returning generation after generation,” Robinson continues.

In the Salton Sea region, Alianza Coachella Valley gathers critical data that may otherwise go overlooked. Executive Director Silvia Paz explains, “Our community science is focused on collecting real-time data that has not been collected by agencies around what's happening in the Salton Sea. We've had a team of academics of various backgrounds, youth from the community, and even students who have gone on to graduate school…go out into the field and collect samples of water, and monitor hydrogen sulfide.” With such hands-on participation from residents of all ages, Alianza Coachella Valley can deliver publicly available data that informs solutions to the challenges of the receding Salton Sea and improves health outcomes. 

When our communities face backlash for demanding the dignity and freedom we deserve, passing lessons from generation to generation serves as a reminder that the fight for justice extends beyond our lifetimes. Building youth power has historically helped movements keep momentum far into the future.

The Dolores Huerta Foundation’s Youth Leadership Program educates growing numbers of young people on power dynamics, organizing principles, base building, issue analysis, and campaign strategies and tactics. Lester Pineda, one of its young leaders, not only joined a successful legislative campaign to improve school meals for students, but also learned from older organizers how to be a more skillful advocate. “I gained a lot of public speaking skills and socializing with people. It helped me come out of my comfort zone,” he says. 

Fowzia Farah was inspired to join Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans’ Youth Congress after witnessing her mother’s community involvement. She and her fellow Youth Congress members are helping to create the Global Village, a cultural and housing hub for refugees and immigrants. “One of the biggest victories is acquiring community owned land that will be a melting pot for multi-generational and multi ethnic-families,” she says. “A space where our communities can exist freely, without surveillance and be governed by our own values where we can feel safe, seen, and supported.”

Knowledge-sharing across generations is also key to the success of the People’s Climate Innovation Center’s youth leadership initiatives. “The most pivotal support for me…was my mentor,” says Jaelyn Elizabeth, a recent graduate of Climate Innovation’s leadership programs. “[She helped me] elevate my self-perception and sustain myself.” By supporting Black youth and youth of color’s climate projects, these leadership programs shape the climate justice movement to better represent our communities. Throughout the experience, young leaders teach their older mentors in turn. Elizabeth taught her mentor that “there's so much power in intention and belief…If you want to do it, you can do it. You don't need anyone to give you permission.”

Social Bond grantees continue to create change despite threats to our democracy. Their intergenerational organizing not only makes an immediate impact for the entire state’s health, but also furthers longer-term efforts to realize a just, equitable future.

If their collective impact offers one lesson for philanthropy, it is this: Such courage, tenacity and creativity demands sustained investment far beyond traditional grantmaking. Grantmakers are called to uplift the people who live closest to injustice, and fuel the innovative, long-term solutions our communities are already leading.

This content was paid for by The California Endowment. The editorial staff at The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.