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Stormin' through Summer

Storm and Matthew Internship

by Storm McNerney

During the last semester of my undergraduate studies at San Jose State University, it seemed as if I was the only person without an internship. I knew the importance of finding one. After all, many of my peers had already interned at places such as LinkedIn, Google, and Apple. But those internships always felt out of my reach.

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Young Teenagers

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager

On any given day, there are roughly 430,000 children in the American foster care system. Here are the top 5 things to know about children who enter foster care.

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Masters of Change Amador

Foster Youth Recognize the Change-Makers in Their Lives

By Christine Salinas, Grants Manager 

Emmanuel “Manny” Amador is a Pivotal Board Member and former foster youth who spearheads the selection process for our highly anticipated 2019 Masters of Change Awards. We caught up with Manny, who shared his thoughts about this awesome award. 

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Foster Care Awareness ribbons

Volunteers “Jump" to Help Silicon Valley Foster Youth

Ask any nonprofit and they’ll tell you that volunteers are pivotal to carrying out their mission. Stretched thin by budgets and staff members who wear multiple hats, there isn’t a nonprofit out there who can make it without volunteer support. When Jump Associates located us with the help of Universal Giving, we knew we hit a home run.

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Mentorship foster youth

Superhero Coaches, You Say? Yeah, We've Got a Few of Those

by Christine Salinas

This month is National Mentoring Month. Here at Pivotal, we'd like to give our coaches a big ol’ SHOUT OUT! Their caring approach and expertise in all things foster care and young people is what makes Pivotal, well, pivotal.

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non-profits-use-net-promoter-score

Net Promoter Score Is a Valuable Tool in Nonprofit Work

by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager

We’re excited to integrate the Net Promoter Score as a valuable analysis tool that enhances the quality of the services we deliver to foster youth. Thanks to the Fund for Shared Insight’s Listen for Good grant, we have the financial backing to implement a more advanced survey system of our youth’s experiences with Pivotal.  The grant has helped us think of better ways to ask and collect feedback and to add closed feedback loops to our survey process.

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student athlete foster youth award Pivotal

Winning on the Mat and in Life

by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager

We love sharing stories of our college scholarship recipients like Noor Almusahwi, a former foster youth, and current Pivotal scholar. Noor is well on his way to realizing his career goals. He sets the bar high for all college students, not just those from foster care.   

 

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Homelessness Is a Barrier to Earning a College Degree

by Christine Salinas, Grants Manager

Homelessness is a deepening problem for college students. Even as California voters passed two propositions expected to battle homelessness in our community, tent encampments continue to grow in cities across the area. Homelessness has reached a watershed moment in California and foster youth scholars are being hit hard by this crisis. 

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PIvotal-News

Welcome to Pivotal – Our New Name for the Next Chapter of Our Organization’s Story

by Elise Cutini

You may know us for our work as Silicon Valley Children’s Fund – or perhaps you knew us as TeenForce – but now, you can just call us Pivotal. Pivotal is so much more than just a new name and logo. If there's anything we've learned from our 20 years of experience working with foster youth, it's that the nature of what we do - providing academic and employment support to foster youth - is pivotal to their future. 

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