- West Sacramento, California
- [email protected]
- 916-591-5481
Crisis Text Line
TEXT "SAVE" to 741-741
TEXT "SAVE" to 741-741
The mission of the AVAH Foundation is twofold: To inspire HOPE and provide assistance to children struggling with mental illness; and to improve patient care at mental healthcare facilities. Avah committed suicide December 6, 2023 at a mental healthcare facility in Sacramento. Avah was a junior at River City High School in West Sacramento CA. Avah’s Dad, Isaac, started the AVAH Foundation (“A Vision At Hope”) to honor his daughter and to inspire actionable, positive change around children’s mental illness issues by supporting children through their peers and other support networks.
Thank you Sutter Health for the generous donation that made these grants possible.
Develop a plan outlining a peer lead program to support your fellow students who might need a little uplift, positive encouragement in their life, or might struggle with mental illness! The only limit is your imagination!
It could be…a buddy program, a club you invite those in need of a friend to, sporting event that includes those not usually involved in sports, charity/community service event you do with your peers once per month, volunteer as a group to help the local community and include students that usually don’t get involved in school events, some type of social media campaign, maybe a gift exchange where you recognize students that might be overlooked, etc, etc. The main goal is to help identify and support your peers who may be struggling with mental health challenges, new to the school, including any peer who is a loner, outcast, has low self-esteem, is not part of any group, or may be dealing with depression, anxiety, image issues, or other challenges. Provide specific details on how your program would identify and support these students through peer activities, companionship, counseling or other means. You could apply as an individual or you can apply for the scholarship as a group of up to 5 students. If you want to apply as a group please only submit one application and include all group members names in application. PS – if a group wins the award will be split evenly amongst each member of the group.
Plans can be delivered via written document, power point and/or video presentations. You can upload your plan below.
The plans should include a short biography of each applicant including background and personal interests.
Winners will be chosen by the non-profit board of directors of the AVAH Foundation using a range of criteria including the likelihood of success in reaching and supporting the most students in need at your school, creativity, compassion, and achievable plan to engage other students in the school as peer supporters. The school must approve the program before it can be implemented. The program will be implemented after the winner is announced October 2025. At the end of the school year, May 2026, the scholarship and grants will be distributed. If the student is under 18 years old the parent must approve of the disbursement and/or it can be held by the AVAH Foundation and given directly to the student when they turn 18.
Students will be expected to work with their peers to implement the program. All winners (runner-up and honorable mention) must assist the student who wins in implementing the winning program
Thank you Sutter Health for the generous donation that made these grants possible.
EIN Tax ID#: 99-2809244
CA Entity No: 6203290
CA State Charity Registration No: CT0294724