Calibrate

We calibrate: We transform and elevate the lives of tomorrow’s leaders from under-resourced communities, particularly the descendants of American slavery, by providing spaces where they experience their best selves, feel valued for the potential they bring to the world, and prepare to reinvest their time and talents back into their communities.

We heal. We elevate. We build leaders. We are Los Angeles's premier social-emotional learning and training program designed to transform underserved communities. Over the last 30 years, our programming has quantitatively and qualitatively correlated to better lives. Program participants have more stable relationships, higher levels of economic contribution, and lead communities in a virtuous cycle of reinvestment and elevating the lives of underserved youth.

Goal One: A salaried ED position is essential for sustainability and succession.

Goal Two: Salaried staff to run day-to-day operations, starting with a Lead Program Coordinator and Trainer, empowers Calibrate to reach thousands of persons, kindergarten-adult.

Over the past 2 years, Calibrate has hired Marvin Vilma, Managing Director of Development, Let's Get Ready and Founding Managing Director, Next Level Social Impact. Mr. Vilma is an expert consultant for both Executive Directors and Board Directors in all areas of management, development, fundraising, and governance. He has acted as Calibrate's primary mentor in building a sustainable foundation and infrastructure.

When Calibrate® started programming in August 2019, we were a team of 3 serving 2 locations and 125 youth. We are now a team of 80 serving 1,478 youth, K-college at 15 locations in Los Angeles County’s under-resourced zip codes. The pandemic put youth farther behind in social-emotional (SEL) development. We see increased cases of suicidal ideation, bullying, and disengagement; reduced capacity for emotional self-regulation, coping mechanisms, and communication skills. Schools are struggling with staff retention, which means less adults to help children mediate issues, resulting in systems breaking down and cultures becoming toxic. Calibrate’s team are SEL, mental wellness, and restorative justice first-responders. We exist to provide our services to persons who have the least resources, and the pandemic exponentially exacerbated that need. Being a team of deeply empathetic people who have lived in the communities we serve, we focused funds on as many youth as possible, providing a lifeline to keep at-risk children in our communities safe and out of trouble. The pandemic de-stigmatized mental wellness and brought awareness to SEL’s critical, game-changing skill sets. Consequently, Calibrate’s programming ballooned during the pandemic, far outpacing fundraising. To meet the crisis, Calibrate trained an army of community leaders -- ICs and volunteers -- who give 3-10 hours/week outside of their jobs to sustain our children with connection and hope. We applied and were selected to be a Partner of Governor Gavin Newsom's College Corps, and we have formed numerous relationships with various departments in colleges and universities across LA County. These opportunities have allowed us to take advantage of programs whereby we train, mentor, and provide internships for socially and economically disadvantaged, first-generation college students while having access to other funding sources, in order to maximum programming and minimize cost.